Published papers

Using job advertisement data in Japan, we examine the effects of minimum wage (MW) changes on labour demand and how regional differences influence the impact of these changes. Previous research has struggled to fully evaluate the consequences of MW changes because of varying local labour–market conditions and methodological challenges. This study focuses on the demand side by analysing changes in job offers, which better reflect firms’ hiring intentions independent of supply shifts. Our findings reveal that MW increases lead to a net increase in job listings, with a rise in jobs above the new MW exceeding the decline in jobs below it, resulting in a total increase of approximately 10–16%. The positive response is more pronounced in low-density, monopsonistic regions, while high-density competitive markets tend to show a reduction in job offers. The negative impacts are particularly noticeable in clerical, manufacturing, logistics, and cleaning jobs, where competition is high. However, professional jobs show a minimal impact. Our results highlight that the effects of MW increases depend on regional labour–market structures and the competitive dynamics of specific occupations – policymakers should explicitly account for such heterogeneity when designing MW policies.

This study analyzes how monopsony power varies over time by establishment size and examines the factors driving these differences. This is because workers in large firms tend to have greater mobility, which expands their labor market beyond the local level and increases alternative employment opportunities. At the same time, workers in small firms that are more regionally constrained may have fewer options, leading to less competitive labor market conditions. To measure monopsony power, separation elasticity was estimated using a Cox model with individual Japanese data from 2017 to 2024. The results indicate that elasticity in small establishments is relatively low, suggesting weaker labor market competition. While wage elasticity remains stagnant in small establishments, it increases in large establishments over time. To identify the driving factors, this study measures the range of employment options using the Outside Options Index. The findings suggest that declining employment opportunities for individuals working in small establishments contribute to their lower elasticity. This study contributes to clarifying that small establishments, which tend to have limited monopsony power in product markets, do not necessarily experience similar constraints in labor markets. Their monopsony power reflects not only structural conditions but also behavioral constraints. This helps explain wage differentials between establishment sizes. Furthermore, it serves as a preliminary analysis to examine whether teleworking expansion increases competition, compelling small firms to raise wages, or, conversely, whether wage growth occurs in monopsonistic labor markets as labor supply declines in Japan and other advanced economies, as the marginal productivity of labor decreases.

We use a panel data set of Japanese firms from 2005 to 2019 to examine how a firm’s employee age structure affects its productivity and wages. The pooled ordinary-least-squares (OLS) results indicate a negative relationship between the proportion of older employees and labor productivity. However, the effects disappear after applying a fixed effects (FE) model and the generalized method of moments to consider the unobserved heterogeneity among firms. Moreover, the proportion of older employees does not significantly affect firms’ wages. We further examine firm heterogeneity as a factor that contributes to the difference between the pooled OLS and FE estimates. The results suggest that differences in corporate stakeholder characteristics and corporate governance, such as the presence of labor unions and proportion of foreign ownership, may be related to the ratio of older workers and corporate performance.

This paper demonstrates that when one new job is generated by attracting a new business in the tradable sector in a local economy, a significant number of additional jobs are created in the nontradable sector when labor mobility is high. However, these multipliers disappear when labor mobility is low. This paper confirms that regions with higher labor inflow have larger multipliers. Furthermore, the spillover effect of agglomeration economies in the tradable sector is significantly positive on the nontradable sector.

This study finds that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the number of jobs on offer while causing a slight reduction in employment and wage rates in Japan. In particular, the high feasibility of working from home has positively affected the number of offered part-time jobs and negatively affected the offered wages for full-time jobs. Work-from-home culture gained popularity across Japan during the pandemic; it was expected to have a positive impact on women-friendly work environments and curb women’s migration from rural to urban areas. However, jobs with greater feasibility of working from home are offered in urban areas than in rural areas. Furthermore, municipalities that offer more jobs that women tend to work and municipalities that offer a limited variety of occupations provide less opportunities of working from home. In Japan, hybrid working has become more popular than full remote work. Therefore, solely promoting a remote work environment is excessive expectation; we need to ensure its effectiveness.

First, using the sequential linear panel data-estimation model and maps, we demonstrate the relocation of job-posting places, especially for part-time jobs. We use data on the number of job postings at the public employment security office in Japan. These changes in the posting places are clearly observable in the retail trade for part- and full-time jobs. In contrast, we do not find discernible relocation in the information-services industry. The impact of the COVID-19 shock varies by geographic location. However, if people’s mobility rate, the number of infected people, or the declaration of the state of emergency are controlled for, the number of job postings differs among areas. Therefore, second, this study explores the factors that account for the differences in the number of job offers among areas. We find that industrial diversity increases the number of job postings for part- and full-time jobs in 2021, that is, one year after the first wave of the pandemic began. In contrast, industrial specialization has a negative impact in 2021. Higher rigidity of finance decreases the number of part-time job postings immediately after the first wave of the pandemic because local governments cannot provide various support measures to create jobs. However, this financial effect disappears with time. Furthermore, higher financial capability positively affects part-time job postings, although they are not efficient in creating full-time jobs. The unemployment rate in 2015 negatively affects the regional differences in job postings after 2021. Regarding whether firms seek regions with rich human resources, the result is unexpectedly unclear.

This study investigates mechanisms underlying the influence of telework on labor productivity in Japan. First, this study finds that appropriate telework hours increase labor productivity, but when telework hours are too long, telework decreases labor productivity. Second, telework increases life satisfaction, and life satisfaction improves labor productivity. However, telework increases the stress of balancing work and domestic chores, contrary to Japanese governmental expectations, and the stress decreases life satisfaction. The stress, fortunately, does not directly reduce labor productivity. Although telework increases happiness and work satisfaction, these factors do not influence labor productivity. Third, this study clarifies that telework is more efficient for improving labor productivity if workers commute more than 1 hour or commute by trains or buses that are usually very crowded during rush hours in Japan. Finally, the effect of telework for workers who have a greater number of potential trivial duties is insignificantly larger. Supervisors and colleagues often ask others to perform trivial, extra tasks without regard for schedules. Telework may help workers avoid such trivial duties and increase labor productivity. However, the importance of trivial duties is also demonstrated in this study.

Examining Japanese micro-data, this study demonstrates that large core sectors (specialized or manufacturing sectors) in a local economy improve the productivity in the local non-tradable service sectors, and thereby increase employment. The size of service sector demand is determined by the size of the local economy, which, in turn, is determined by these large core sectors. The core sectors are generally sectors with tradable goods and services and their demand is not limited by the local market size as their goods and services supply multiple regions. A large demand for the service sectors induces heightened competition and improves their productivity through Darwinian selection or efficiency improvements within firms. Moreover, the spillover effect from core sectors might affect local service sectors. As a result, a 1% increase in added value in the specialized sectors in the previous estimation period, as well as a 1% increase in the change in added value in the specialized sectors, and a 1% increase in added value in the manufacturing sectors in the previous estimation period affect an increase in the productivity of the service sectors by approximately 4–5, 4 and 2.5%, respectively. Moreover, an increase of 100 thousand dollars of added value in the specialized sectors increases employment by 26 employees in the local service sectors. Furthermore, this study confirms efficiency improvements within firms as a productivity mechanism.

First, this paper empirically evaluates the incidence of the Japanese place-based job creation program, which has rarely been studied in Japan. The program increases employment, especially in the agricultural, retail trade, and service sectors, which most treated municipalities promote. Second, this paper explores the municipalities that the program affects most. Those with large aging populations and those with small working age populations decrease the effects of the program. Third, this paper assesses the externality effect of this program and does not observe a strong reduction in sales, workers, or establishments in the neighboring municipalities of a treated municipality.