Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Economics
New School for Social Research
2004

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Economics
Chuo University
2000

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)

Public Economics
Chuo University
1998

Industry Dynamics

Resource and Environmental Economics

Growth and Inequality

Graduate Courses

Macroeconomic Theory II

Macroeconomic Theory III

Growth and Development III 

Mathematics for Economists

Outstanding Service Award (Howard University), 2017

Does International-Reserves Targeting Decrease the Vulnerability to Capital Flights?

Does International-Reserves Targeting Decrease the Vulnerability to Capital Flights?

Numerous episodes of financial turmoil such as the 1997–1998 East Asian currency crisis have shown that economies are more vulnerable to currency runs if their currency reserves are low and have not been targeted by central bank policies. These issues have recently become again relevant as a significant capital flight could be observed with respect to China's currency by the beginning of 2016, which however did not develop to a full fledged currency crisis due to the availability of large currency reserves by the Central Bank of China. Against this background, we study the design of optimal monetary policy rules in a theoretical framework where foreign investors react in a nonlinear manner to the evolution of the central bank's currency reserves.

Modeling the Dynamics of the Transition to a Green Economy

Modeling the Dynamics of the Transition to a Green Economy

Recent academic work argues for a greater urgency to implement effective climate policies to combat global warming. Concrete policy proposals for reducing CO2 emissions have been developed by the IPCC. Yet, it has not been sufficiently explored to what extent mitigation policies, such as cap-and-trade, carbon tax or the phasing in of green technology, will entail structural change in an economy. Here, we explore the transition to a green economy using a growth model with structural change resulting from three types of policies: (1) shifting preferences, (2) taxing high-carbon intensive goods, or (3) imposing a carbon tax while subsidizing low-carbon intensive economic activities. We also will consider a strategy of imposing a carbon tax and subsidizing labor cost. Our focus will be on two questions: What impact do the policies under consideration have on employment and output, and whether resulting growth paths will be stable. We also indicate how the effects of carbon policies can be assessed empirically.

Employment and Output Effects of Climate Policies

Employment and Output Effects of Climate Policies

One of the major instruments that has been proposed to stop global warming is a carbon tax. A main obstacle for its implementation, however, are concerns about the short-term effects on employment and output. To mitigate possible negative effects, several European countries have introduced so-called environmental tax reforms, which are designed in a budget-neutral manner: Revenues from the tax can be used to reduce existing distortionary taxes or to subsidize less polluting activities. We apply this idea to a carbon tax scheme by performing a vector autoregression (VAR) with output and employment data of nine industrialized countries. We impose a simultaneous policy shock on the economy whereby a carbon tax is levied on high-carbon–intensive industries and the resulting tax revenue is redistributed to low-carbon-intensive industries. Impulse response analysis shows that such a policy allows for net gains in terms of output and employment.