US-Japanese Knowledge Transfer Program in the Aftermath of WWII

In the aftermath of World War II, a large-scale management program, sponsored by the United States and known as the Productivity Program, was implemented in several European countries and Japan. The program involved sending corporate executives to observe business practices at U.S. firms and aimed to share modern management practices and enhance productivity in the recipient countries. In this paper, we first summarize the similarities and differences in how the program was implemented in Japan and European countries based on historical documents. Next, using data on Japanese firms that participated in the program, combined with a database of stock-listed firms, we document the characteristics of participating firms and compare them to other stock-listed firms during the same period. We also provide a simple comparison of firm performance over the first two decades of the program between participating firms and non-participating firms with similar initial characteristics.