Are Americans More Altruistic Than the Japanese?

Are Americans More Altruistic Than the Japanese?
Author: Charles Horioka
Publisher:
Total Pages: 62
Release: 2000
Genre: Households
ISBN:

In this paper, we analyze a variety of data on saving motives, bequest motives, and bequest division from the Comparative Survey of Savings in Japan and the United States,' a binational survey conducted in 1996 by the Institute for Posts and Telecommunications Policy of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the Government of Japan, in order to shed light on which model of household behavior applies in the two countries. We find (1) that the selfish life cycle model is the dominant model of household behavior in both countries but that it is far more applicable in Japan than it is in the U.S., (2) that the altruism model is far more applicable in the U.S. than it is in Japan but that it is not the dominant model of household behavior in either country, and (3) that the dynasty model is more applicable in Japan than it is in the U.S. bu that it is of only limited applicability even in Japan.

Are Americans and Indians More Altruistic Than the Japanese and Chinese?

Are Americans and Indians More Altruistic Than the Japanese and Chinese?
Author: Charles Yuji Horioka
Publisher:
Total Pages: 39
Release: 2014
Genre: Altruism
ISBN:

This paper discusses three alternative assumptions concerning household preferences (altruism, self-interest, and a desire for dynasty building) and shows that these assumptions have very different implications for bequest motives and bequest division. After reviewing some of the literature on actual bequests, bequest motives, and bequest division, the paper presents data on the strength of bequest motives, stated bequest motives, and bequest division plans from a new international survey conducted in China, India, Japan, and the United States. It finds striking inter-country differences in bequest plans, with the bequest plans of Americans and Indians appearing to be much more consistent with altruistic preferences than those of the Japanese and Chinese and the bequest plans of the Japanese and Chinese appearing to be much more consistent with selfish preferences than those of Americans and Indians. These findings have important implications for the efficacy and desirability of stimulative fiscal policies, public pensions, and inheritance taxes.

Law in Everyday Japan

Law in Everyday Japan
Author: Mark D. West
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2010-02-15
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0226894096

Lawsuits are rare events in most people's lives. High-stakes cases are even less commonplace. Why is it, then, that scholarship about the Japanese legal system has focused almost exclusively on epic court battles, large-scale social issues, and corporate governance? Mark D. West's Law in Everyday Japan fills a void in our understanding of the relationship between law and social life in Japan by shifting the focus to cases more representative of everyday Japanese life. Compiling case studies based on seven fascinating themes—karaoke-based noise complaints, sumo wrestling, love hotels, post-Kobe earthquake condominium reconstruction, lost-and-found outcomes, working hours, and debt-induced suicide—Law in Everyday Japan offers a vibrant portrait of the way law intermingles with social norms, historically ingrained ideas, and cultural mores in Japan. Each example is informed by extensive fieldwork. West interviews all of the participants-from judges and lawyers to defendants, plaintiffs, and their families-to uncover an everyday Japan where law matters, albeit in very surprising ways.

American Niceness

American Niceness
Author: Carrie Tirado Bramen
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 381
Release: 2017-08-14
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0674982363

The cliché of the Ugly American—loud, vulgar, materialistic, chauvinistic—still expresses what people around the world dislike about their Yankee counterparts. Carrie Tirado Bramen recovers the history of a very different national archetype—the nice American—which has been central to ideas of U.S. identity since the nineteenth century. Niceness is often assumed to be a superficial concept unworthy of serious analysis. Yet the distinctiveness of Americans has been shaped by values of sociality and likability for which the adjective “nice” became a catchall. In America’s fledgling democracy, niceness was understood to be the indispensable trait of a people who were refreshingly free of Old World snobbery. Bramen elucidates the role niceness plays in a particular fantasy of American exceptionalism, one based not on military and economic might but on friendliness and openness. Niceness defined the attitudes of a plucky (and white) settler nation, commonly expressed through an affect that Bramen calls “manifest cheerfulness.” To reveal its contested inflections, Bramen shows how American niceness intersects with ideas of femininity, Native American hospitality, and black amiability. Who claimed niceness and why? Despite evidence to the contrary, Americans have largely considered themselves to be a fundamentally nice and decent people, from the supposedly amicable meeting of Puritans and Native Americans at Plymouth Rock to the early days of American imperialism when the mythology of Plymouth Rock became a portable emblem of goodwill for U.S. occupation forces in the Philippines.

Comparing social policies

Comparing social policies
Author: Izuhara, Misa
Publisher: Policy Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2003-02-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1847425658

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, both Britain and Japan are facing similar issues caused by globalisation, slower economic growth, and a rapidly ageing population. Social policy in the two societies, which has developed differently due to the differences in their national resources, socio-economic systems, cultural values and political agendas, is at an interesting turning point. Comparing social policies: examines topical issues with up-to-date information; compares and contrasts selected policy areas between the two societies; presents original material written by leading scholars in each country. This original book will be of great interest to academics and students, as well as policy makers and practitioners internationally, who are interested in various fields of social policy in Britain and Japan.

The Political Economy of Population Aging

The Political Economy of Population Aging
Author: Kimiko Terai
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 110
Release: 2021-09-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9811655367

This book integrates the economics of aging and insight based on political economy and explores generational conflict in the context of governmental spending. This problem is general, as the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted: lockdowns protect the elderly, but hurt the young. Policies to address global warming impose taxes on the elderly, but would bring benefits largely in the future. This book addresses intergenerational problems by placing its focus on budget allocation, taxation, and regulation. By using Japanese and US data, the authors conduct statistical analysis of whether regions with aging populations may adopt policies that generate benefits during a short period of time instead of policies that could benefit current young generations for an extended period of time. If the policy preferences of voters depend on their age, and if policy adoption by a government reflects public opinion, the change in demographic composition in a region may affect governmental policies. In an aged society, the elderly are pivotal voters. Budgets may be reallocated from policies favored by younger generations, such as education, to policies the elderly prefer, such as welfare programs. This generates an intergenerational externality problem: voters with short life expectancy do not take into consideration long-term benefits. Moreover, the current tax bases may be replaced by other tax bases that do not harm the elderly. The results reported in the book largely support these hypotheses. Evidence also shows that the gender and racial composition and institutional factors, including the extent of fiscal decentralization, are important in anticipating effects of population aging in other countries.

Economics and Ageing

Economics and Ageing
Author: José Luis Iparraguirre
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2018-12-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3319932489

This upper level textbook provides a coherent introduction to the economic implications of individual and population ageing. Placing economic considerations into a wider social sciences context, this is ideal reading not only for advanced undergraduate and masters students in economics, health economics and the economics of ageing, but also policy makers, students, professionals and practitioners in gerontology, sociology, health-related sciences and social care. This volume introduces the different conceptualisations of age and definitions of `old age', as well as the main theories of individual ageing as developed in the disciplines of biology, psychology and sociology. It covers the economic theories of fertility, mortality and migration and describes the four main frameworks that can be used to study economics and ageing, namely the life cycle, the overlapping generations, the perpetual youth and the dynastic models.

Long-run Growth and Short-run Stabilization

Long-run Growth and Short-run Stabilization
Author: The late Lawrence R. Klein
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2006-02-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781781950500

There is much confusion in the economics literature on wage determination and the employment-inflation trade-off. Few model builders pay as much careful attention to the definition and meaning of long-run concepts as did Albert Ando. Expanding on years of painstaking work by Ando, the contributors elaborate on the main issues of economic analysis and policies that concerned him.