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Inventory Reduction And Productivity Growth: Linkages In The Japanese Automotive Industry, Marvin B. Lieberman, Lieven Demeester Mar 1999

Inventory Reduction And Productivity Growth: Linkages In The Japanese Automotive Industry, Marvin B. Lieberman, Lieven Demeester

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The literature on JIT production suggests a causal link between work-in-progress inventory and manufacturing productivity. Such a connection has been described in numerous case studies but never tested statistically. Historical data for 52 Japanese automotive companies are used to evaluate the inventory-productivity relationship. It is found that firms increased their productivity rank during periods of substantial inventory reduction. More detailed tests suggest that inventory reductions stimulated gains in productivity. On average, each 10% reduction in inventory led to about a 1% gain in labor productivity, with a lag of about one year. Such effects were more immediate for Toyota affiliates, …


Design And Implementation Of Contracts: A Comparison Of Factor Markets Relevant To Financial Reporting In Japan And The U.S, Shyam Sunder Dec 1998

Design And Implementation Of Contracts: A Comparison Of Factor Markets Relevant To Financial Reporting In Japan And The U.S, Shyam Sunder

Shyam Sunder

Design of contracts that define firm, and their accounting systems depend on the conditions in the firm’s factor and product markets. We examine the fundamental difficulty of defining and developing "uniform" accounting for diverse economic environments across countries and compare the differences in conditions prevailing in some key markets in Japan and the United States. There are important differences in industrial organization, accounting entities, markets for capital, managers, and labor, employee risk bearing, role of government, and market for corporate control. It would be difficult to defend the current reporting practices in either country to be optimal relative to the …