Published papers

Do parents pass on their subjective well-being (SWB) to their children? This study uses long-term panel data from two generations in the Japan Household Panel Survey to examine intergenerational persistence of SWB. We find that rank–rank slopes for intergenerational persistence of happiness, self-reported general health, and mental health are 0.25, 0.22, and 0.13, respectively, which are intermediate levels when compared to other countries. SWB exhibits somewhat lower intergenerational persistence than income in Japan, suggesting that well-being is generally more mobile than economic status. These associations remain consistent across different groups, with SWB more strongly transmitted in wealthier households. A mediation analysis reveals that personality traits, especially agreeableness, play a minor role in intergenerational persistence of SWB, pointing to both genetic and environmental pathways—yet much remains unexplained. Taken together, our findings highlight the strong influence of both family and institutional contexts in shaping long-term well-being.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic could have caused both monetary and non-monetary distributional changes, existing studies have only investigated its immediate monetary impacts. This study examines the pandemic’s medium-term impacts on income and well-being inequality using individual longitudinal data from the Japan Household Panel Survey. Gini coefficients and income mobility before and after the pandemic are calculated to analyze income inequality. Various well-being measures such as mental health and life satisfaction are used to analyze well-being inequality. The findings reveal no increase in income inequality. Progressive income growth ensured stable inequality throughout the pandemic. Conversely, on average, well-being worsened, and well-being inequality increased. Furthermore, we find an association between income and well-being inequality. The random-effects and fixed-effects models indicate that the well-being of the high-income group tended to improve, whereas that of the low-income group tended to deteriorate after the outbreak of the pandemic. Additionally, the causal mediation analysis shows that the adoption of remote work served as a factor for the increase in the well-being of people in the high-income group. Remote work became disproportionately prevalent during the pandemic, especially among people in the higher income group. This group experienced various benefits of remote work, which contributed to an improvement in their well-being and an increase in well-being inequality.

Background: There is rising public concern over the widening health inequalities in many countries. The aim of this study was to clarify the associations of socioeconomic status (SES)-related variables, such as levels of household disposable income and employment status, and lifestyle factors with mental health conditions among Japanese adults aged 40 to 69. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 3085 participants (1527 males and 1558 females) was undertaken by using a self-administered questionnaire that included the Japanese version of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and questions related to socioeconomic and lifestyle factors. Results: The prevalence of poor mental health conditions, represented by a GHQ-12 score of 4 or more, was 33.4% among males and 40.4% among females. Males whose annual household disposable income was less than 2 million yen had significantly higher GHQ-12 scores than those with an annual household disposable income above 2 million yen. As per binary logistic regression analyses, short sleep duration and the absence of physical exercise were significantly related to poor mental health conditions among both males and females. Among females, a household disposable income of less than 2 million yen could be a risk factor for poor mental health conditions. Age and habitual drinking were inversely associated with poor mental health conditions. Conclusions: Low levels of household disposable income and unhealthy lifestyle factors were significantly associated with mental health conditions. These results suggest the importance of improving unhealthy lifestyle behaviours and developing effective health promotion programmes. In addition, there is a need for social security systems for people from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

This paper estimates the effect of comprehensive and diverse regional childcare services on Japanese women’s labour participation and well-being. On the basis of a sequence of childcare policies introduced in the early 2000s in Japan, we apply the difference-in-differences method. Our empirical results show that these services had positive heterogeneous effects on women’s labour supply in terms of extensive and intensive margins, depending on their employment type. Furthermore, we find a mixed result that the availability of such childcare services deteriorated the subjective well-being of regular employees possibly due to the increased working hours, but improved that of nonregular employees possibly due to the increased participation in the labour market.

It is widely believed that the relationship between a supervisor and his/her employees greatly affects employees’ well-being and/or productivity. However, only a few papers in the economics literature analyze how supervisors influence employees’ well-being and enhance productivity. This paper uses longitudinal data of employees with information about their immediate bosses’ ability, management skills, and characteristics (such as competency, communication skills, and personality traits) to investigate the influence of supervisors on employees. The main findings are as follows. First, even after controlling for individual-specific fixed effects and other job characteristics, such as those proposed in the job strain model, we find that supervisors’ good communication with staff and competency in managerial tasks significantly improve employees’ mental health. Second, we find that good communication between the boss and his/her staff enhances the latter's productivity and lowers presenteeism. Third, supervisors’ bad communication and low competency increase the probability of quitting. Fourth, good communication partially depends on boss–staff compatibility, which is governed in part by their combined personality traits.

The diffusion of AI may prove to have a significant impact on labor productivity, wages, employment, and well-being. To minimize the disadvantages of AI and to reap its benefits, such as increased productivity, wages, and well-being, it is important to create complementary innovations at the individual, organizational, and societal levels that facilitate the use of AI. Such complementary innovations include reskilling workers and upgrading their tasks.

This study provides an ex-ante and ex-post evaluation of the Employment Adjustment Subsidy (EAS) that the Japanese government extended to unprecedented levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using unique monthly data from firm-level surveys, we investigate the types of firms that applied for the EAS and the evolution of their subsequent performance. A key contribution of our study is that we provide an ex-post evaluation of the EAS on firm performance for approximately two years during the pandemic. As in previous studies, we confirm that majority of the firms that applied for the EAS were not zombies before the pandemic. However, their subsequent sales were much lower than those of non-applicant firms, even during the economic recovery period. This feature was conspicuous in 2021, specifically for small-scale firms in troubled sectors, unless they received extra support. The results suggest that the initial large-scale subsidy was unsuccessful in preventing the zombification of troubled firms during the pandemic.