Regional disparities in bonding and bridging social capital: An empirical study of rural and urban Japan

This article investigates regional social capital development by focusing on disparities in bonding and bridging social capital among rural and urban areas of Japan. Rural–urban differences in social capital in Western contexts have been discussed by many studies. Their main finding is that bonding social capital is richer in rural areas and bridging social capital is richer in urban areas. However, the empirical evidence presented in this article suggests that in Japan both bridging and bonding social capital are richer in rural than urban areas, diverging from traditional thinking about these two types of social capital. This finding suggests that urbanization and depopulation in rural areas of Japan have led to changes in people's behavior and their demand for social networks, promoting the development of bridging social capital in rural areas.     

Pay-as-you-go social security and endogenous fertility in a neoclassical growth model

This paper theoretically studies how unfunded pay-as-you-go social security affects economic growth, the fertility rate, and welfare in a neoclassical growth model. In addition, this paper considers a more general form of child-rearing cost, which is a mixture of time and money. The first observation is that whether the fertility rate increases or not by the expansion of the pay-as-you-go social security depends on (1) the size of the monetary child-rearing cost relative to the time spent on child-rearing and (2) the current fertility and interest rate in laissez faire. The second observation is that income per worker can increase by an expansion in pay-as-you-go social security when the output elasticity of capital is sufficiently small and the payroll tax rate is high. The last finding is that welfare can be improved even though capital is underaccumulated in an economy.     

The dynamic transformation of political systems through social contract: a game theoretic approach

 We consider how the political system of the state evolves in the process of economic development. We present a dynamic public goods economy with non-overlapping generations, which confronts the free-rider problem without the state. In each generation, individuals enter under the unanimous rule a social contract of the political system, either monarchy or democracy, and then attempt to establish the state under the contracted political system. If the state is established, it provides public goods by enforcing tax on its members. Our game theoretic analysis shows: (i) the state can be established if and only if social productivity in terms of the capital stock of public goods is lower than a critical level; (ii) individuals choose democracy if social productivity is sufficiently high, while monarchy may be chosen if it is not; (iii) social productivity stochastically converges to the critical level over generations; and (iv) a simulation result shows several transformation patterns of political systems. Received: 21 June 1994/Accepted: 7 November 1995     

On improved estimation of a gamma shape parameter

This paper deals with improved estimation of a gamma shape parameter from a decision-theoretic point of view. First we study the second-order properties of three estimators – (i) the maximum-likelihood estimator (MLE), (ii) a bias corrected version of the MLE, and (iii) an improved version (in terms of mean squared error) of the MLE. It is shown that all the three estimators mentioned above are second-order inadmissible. Next, we obtain superior estimators which are second order better than the above three estimators. Simulation results are provided to study the relative risk improvement of each improved estimator over the MLE.     

On Second Order Admissibilities in Two-Parameter Logistic Regression Model

In two-parameter family of distribution, conditions for a modified maximum likelihood estimator to be second-order admissible are given. Applying these results to two-parameter logistic regression model, it is shown that the maximum likelihood estimator is always second-order inadmissible and the Rao-Blackwellized minimum logit chi-squared estimator is second-order admissible if and only if the number of the doses is greater than or equal to 6.     

Some comments on escoufier's RV- coefficient as a sensitivity measure in principal component analysis

The RV-coefficient (Escoufier, 1973; Robert and Escoufier, 1976) is studied as a sensitivity coefficient of the subspace spanned by dominant eigenvectors in principal component analysis. We use the perturbation expansion up to second order term of the corresponding projection matrix. The relationship with the measures by Benasseni (1990) and Krzanowski (1979) is also discussed.     

Historic evolution of public relations in Japan

This study follows the history of public relations in Japan. Meiji restoration in 1867 marked the beginning of modernization of Japan, but as democratization did not accompany modernization, the country was void of autonomous public. The birth of public relations department, though not in the mainland Japan, can be traced back to the 1920s at South Manchurian Railroad in Japan-controlled-Manchuria. After the World War II, the U.S. led Allied Occupation Army urged national and local government to adopt public relations. Shortly afterwards, ad agencies learned from the U.S. the use of public relations, but as marketing gained ground, public relations came to be used as marketing support tool. Criticism of environmental pollution in the 1970s, overseas expansion of businesses in the 1980s, collapse of bubble economy and business crises in the 1990s and onward, each drove public relations in Japan to increase its importance and expand its field.     

New regression formula to estimate the whole population for recapture-addicted small mammals

Summary We have devised a census formula of curvilinear regression suitable for capture-recapture data of recapture-addicted populations of the Japanese field vole (Microtus montebelli) obtained under a grid-plan with single-catch traps in order to estimate the whole population. The equation is founded on the assumption that the trappable population on the initial day is increased in way of an exponential curve until it reaches to the whole during one trapping period. The effect of trap-preoccupation by marked and multiple collisions is considered in the formula. As a result of its application to field data of the vole, it has turned out that the equation is required for the data gained under the trapping plan with trap spacing 10m, but not for those under the plan with spacing 5m, to estimate the whole. A convenient method of analysis of the formula is offered here, but we have been yet unable to introduce assymptotic variance of estimates. Contributions from JIBP-PT No. 19, carried out by the grant from the expenditure of Education Department to the specific study on “Dynamics of Biosphere”.     

Inquiry into effects of prebaiting on removal census in a vole population

Summary A field work with two plots of grid, a snap trap being set on each station spaced 5 m apart, was executed in the summer of 1968 to evaluate prebaiting in census trapping by comparing the result in one plot, prebaited for three days, with that in the other not prebaited. Since the population was as high as some 230 per acre on the average in density and formed of the vole,Microtus montebelli, alone, sufficient samples were gathered irrespective of the plot size as small as 50×50 m. Owning to the circumstances, multiple collisions inflicted so intense influence on sampling especially in the prebaited plot thatz-equation for census adjusted to the effect was well applicable to the data in either plot. In sampling, the fact that small voles are apt to be caught later than large voles was statistically evidenced in either sex, and yet any proof that males tend to be caught prior to females was not offered. It was ascertained in either plot that the daily catch was realized according to the same rule through the whole period of trapping in both external belt and internal square within the plot; hence it follows that no considerable immigration occurred. One of the beneficial effects of prebaiting is sure to be that the probability of capture was markedly enhanced in the prebaited plot, and a second is supposed, though inconclusively, to be that a good sampling could be executed consistently through the census period giving rise to no inordinate catches perhaps due to heterogeneous sampling as was seen in earlier days in the not prebaited plot. The supposition has derived from the condition that most of the whole population is trappable, which is established by interrelation among population density, size of home range and trap spacing. It was suggested that the effect of prebaiting should be evaluated from the view-point of the interrelation, because the basic utility of prebaiting consists in that it may help to our utlimate purpose to estimate the whole population. Contribution from JIBP-PT No. 55, carried out by the grant from the expenditure of Education Department to the specific study on “Dynamics of Biosphere”