On the Japanese Economy and Japanese National Accounts

Albert Ando

No 8033, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: A review of the Japanese National Accounts reveals that the Japanese household sector has apparently suffered a capital loss of some 400 trillion-yen in 1990 consumption prices since 1970. This loss is large enough to explain most of the Japanese recession of the 1990's. We can trace some three-fourths of this capital loss to the loss in the market value of Japanese corporations relative to their accounting value (at reproduction cost). While some plausible explanations for this loss can be offered, they are subject to serious doubts because of difficulties encountered in working with the Japanese National Accounts data. Similarly, we find total government expenditures reported in Japanese fiscal statistics difficult to interpret, and the difference between this total and total expenditures for the general government sector in the National Accounts hard to identify and understand. Until the relationship between the budget totals and the corresponding figures in the National Accounts is fully clarified, we are unable to say what the actual history of Japanese fiscal policy has been. We conclude the paper with a set of suggestions for improving the Japanese government's fiscal statistics and its National Income Accounts. We also hope that our discussion will serve as a guide for users of these statistics as to where they must be cautious.

JEL-codes: C82 E60 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000-12
Note: EFG
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published as Ando, Albert. "The Elusive Total Budget Outlay Of The Japanese Government: An Inquiry Into The Japanese National Accounts II," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 2002, v16(2,Jun), 177-193.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w8033.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8033

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w8033

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().