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The Myth of the Patient Japanese: Corporate Myopia and Financial Distress in Japan and the US

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Author Info
Brian J. Hall
David E. Weinstein

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Abstract

It is widely believed that the stock-market oriented US financial system forces corporate managers to behave myopically relative to their Japanese counterparts, who operate in a bank-based system. We hypothesize that if US firms are more myopic than Japanese firms, then episodes of financial distress (when myopia should be most pronounced) should cause US firms to decrease their R&D spending (our main proxy for long-term investment) more than Japanese firms. We find no evidence that this is the case. In addition, we show that Japanese firms do not invest more than US firms after the onset of distress. Our results hold up even when US firms are compared to Japanese financial ties to their banks and are thought to be the least myopic (and the most able to weather distress). The results also withstand a variety of robustness checks. Our findings that US and Japanese firms respond similarly to financial distress cast doubt on the view that US managers are more short-sighted than their Japanese counterparts.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 5818.

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Date of creation: Nov 1996
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5818

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Stein, Jeremy C, 1988. "Takeover Threats and Managerial Myopia," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(1), pages 61-80, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Stein, Jeremy C, 1989. "Efficient Capital Markets, Inefficient Firms: A Model of Myopic Corporate Behavior," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 104(4), pages 655-69, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Eric J. Bartelsman & Wayne Gray, 1996. "The NBER Manufacturing Productivity Database," NBER Technical Working Papers 0205, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1995. "A Survey of Corporate Governance," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1741, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
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  5. Hayashi, Fumio & Inoue, Tohru, 1991. "The Relation between Firm Growth and Q with Multiple Capital Goods: Theory and Evidence from Panel Data on Japanese Firms," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(3), pages 731-53, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Diamond, Douglas W, 1984. "Financial Intermediation and Delegated Monitoring," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 51(3), pages 393-414, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. von Thadden, Ernst-Ludwig, 1995. "Long-Term Contracts, Short-Term Investment and Monitoring," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 62(4), pages 557-75, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Hoshi, Takeo & Kashyap, Anil & Scharfstein, David, 1990. "The role of banks in reducing the costs of financial distress in Japan," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 67-88, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Hoshi, Takeo & Kashyap, Anil & Scharfstein, David, 1991. "Corporate Structure, Liquidity, and Investment: Evidence from Japanese Industrial Groups," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 106(1), pages 33-60, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Mehdi Nekhili & Evelyne Poincelot, 2000. "La fonction R&D et la latitude managériale:une analyse théorique," Working Papers FARGO 1000303, Université de Bourgogne - Latec/Fargo (Research center in Finance,organizational ARchitecture and GOvernance). [Downloadable!]
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  2. Okamuro, Hiroyuki & Zhang, Jian Xiong, 2006. "Ownership Structure and R&D Investment of Japanese Start-up Firms," CEI Working Paper Series 2006-1, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University. [Downloadable!]
  3. Hellwig, Martin, 1998. "On the Economics and Politics of Corporate Finance and Corporate Control," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 98-43, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim & Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim. [Downloadable!]
  4. Hellwig, Martin, 2000. "Corporate Governance and the Financing of Investment for Structural Change," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 00-32, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim & Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim. [Downloadable!]
  5. Okamuro, Hiroyuki, 2006. "Determinants of R&D Activities by Start-up Firms: Evidence from Japan," CEI Working Paper Series 2006-2, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University. [Downloadable!]
  6. Kaoru Hosono & Masayo Tomiyama & Tsutomu Miyagawa, 2004. "Corporate governance and research and development: evidence from Japan," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 141-164, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Jun-Koo Kang & Rene M. Stulz, 1997. "Is Bank-Centered Corporate Governance Worth It? A Cross-Sectional Analysis of the Performance of Japanese Firms during the Asset Price Deflation," NBER Working Papers 6238, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Gérard Charreaux & Philippe Desbrières, 2001. "Corporate Governance: Stakeholder Value Versus Shareholder Value," Working Papers FARGO 1010301, Université de Bourgogne - Latec/Fargo (Research center in Finance,organizational ARchitecture and GOvernance). [Downloadable!]
  9. Gérard Charreaux & Philippe Desbrières, 1997. "Gouvernance des entreprises:valeur partenariale contre valeur actionnariale," Working Papers FARGO 0970801, Université de Bourgogne - Latec/Fargo (Research center in Finance,organizational ARchitecture and GOvernance). [Downloadable!]
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