David E. Weinstein is Carl S. Shoup Professor of the Japanese Economy
and Director of Research at the Center on Japanese Economy and Business.
He is also Research Director of the Japan Project at the National
Bureau of Economic Research and a Member of the Council on Foreign
Relations. Previously, Professor Weinstein was a Senior Economist and a
consultant at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and at the Federal
Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Federal Reserve Board of
Governors. Prior to joining the Columbia faculty, Professor Weinstein
held professorships at the University of Michigan and Harvard
University. He also served on the Council of Economic Advisors from 1989
to 1990. He is the recipient of many grants and awards including five
National Science Foundation grants, an Institute for New Economic
Thinking grant, and a Google Research Award.
Award Information
The Japanese government organized hundreds of cartels in many of Japan's key industrial sectors in an effort to promote efficiency and prevent what they saw as excess competition. This project will attempt to empirically evaluate the effects of these cartels on Japanese firms and industries in an effort to understand Japanese government policy and the impacts that opportunities to collude have had on Japanese firms. The project will focus on how government cartels affected the prices, capacities and outputs of cartel members. Furthermore, the project will also address issues related to whether Japanese cartels as well as quantitative export restraints placed on Japanese producers have caused Japanese firms to behave strategically by either excessively entering industries that are likely to be cartelized or pursuing market share before cartels are organized in an effort to gain larger quotas once cartels are formed.
