"Investment Wave, Vintage Spike and Productivity: Rethinking "Industrial Rationalization" in Postwar Japan"(in Japanese)

Tetsuji Okazaki
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Tetsuji Okazaki: Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo

No CIRJE-J-199, CIRJE J-Series from CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo

Abstract: In the early 1950s, "industrial rationalization," i.e. renovation and modernization of industrial equipments became the focus of the industrial policy as well as the corporate strategy. In this paper, I explored its historical background and implication. Estimating the vintage of capital stock from 1916 to 1964, I found that the wave of investment during the war brought about a sharp spike in the time-series of the vintage. At the same time, equipment-level vintage data on the iron and steel industry indicate that the vintage distribution in 1949 had a spike reflecting the wartime investment wave. "Industrial rationalization" can be interpreted as a measure to prevent a potential surge of the average vintage due to the vintage spike caused by the wartime investment wave. Through an analysis of establishment-level data of steel-making, it was confirmed that increase of the vintage gave a substantial negative impact on labor productivity.

Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2008-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tky:jseres:2008cj199

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