Why do people leave bequests? For love or self-interest? Evidence from a new international survey of bequest plans
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.
Why Asian firms hold cash
[with Akiko Terada-Hagiwara]. Existing literature concludes cash remains ‘king’ and that debt capacity does not provide the same degree of downside protection. We consider why firms hold cash, and what determines how much cash firms hold, with particular attention to Asian firms.
Why hasn’t Japan’s massive government debt wreaked havoc (yet)?
[with Takaaki Nomoto and Akiko Terada-Hagiwara] The potential sovereign debt crisis in Japan looks even grimmer than those in the Eurozone economies if one looks only at the gross general government debt-to-GDP ratio. Japan’s gross general government debt-to-GDP ratio is more than twice the OECD-wide average (109 percent) and by far the highest in the...
Corporate cash holding in Asia
[with Akiko Terada-Hagiwara] We analyze the determinants of corporate saving in the form of changes in the stock of cash for 11 Asian economies using firm-level data from the Oriana Database for the 2002–2011 period.
Why has Japan’s massive government debt not wreaked havoc (yet)?
[with Takaaki Nomoto and Akiko Terada-Hagiwara] In this paper, we present data on trends over time in government debt financing in Japan since 2010 with emphasis on the importance of foreign holders and speculate about the determinants of those trends.
