Comments by Deborah Swenson, on Globalization and Domestic Operations: Applying the JC/JD Method to Japanese Manufacturing Firms

Abstract

Deborah Swenson: Aggregate outcomes arise as a consequence of multiple decisions at the micro-level. In the case of manufacturing employment, the individual decisions taken by firms as they expand or contract their workforces combine to form the forces of job creation and job destruction that underpin the employment outcomes we observe at the economy-wide level. Thus, Ando and Kimura decide to track individual firm decisions as a means of understanding the factors behind recent changes in Japan’s labor market, as they relate to the globalization efforts of Japanese firms.