Modern Macroeconomics with Historical Perspectives [electronic resource] / edited by Shuetsu Takahashi, Mitsuyoshi Yanagihara, Kei Hosoya, Tsuyoshi Shinozaki.

1. Declining Population Growth and the Serendipity Theorem -- 2. Consumption of Leisure Goods, Leisure Time, and Inheritance of Tastes for Leisure in an Overlapping Generations Model -- 3. Overlapping Generations Model with Relative Preference for Children's Human Capital -- 4. The Impact of Life Insurance on Human Capital Investment during the Steady Growth Period in Japan: Simulation Analysis in an Overlapping Generations Model with Endogenous Growth -- 5. The Effects of Patience in a Growth Model with Infrastructure and a Related Externality -- 6. Intergenerational Inequalities and Policy Options for Achieving Generational Balance in Japan -- 7. Social Security Finance in Japan-Trends, Issues, and Some Measures for Stabilization -- 8. The Effect of Political Uncertainty and Political Lobbying -- 9. A Consideration of the Municipal Electric Power Utility and Local City of Modern Age in Japan -- 10. Concentration and Agglomeration in Spatial Monopoly, Spatial Duopoly, and Spatial Competition.

This book gives readers advanced insights into macroeconomics with historical perspectives and proposes policies to resolve the problems the Japanese economy faces. In the past decade, Japan has experienced a rapidly aging population with an ever-decreasing number of children. This causes significant problems related to macroeconomics covered by this book: a decreasing population, an increasing public debt, an increasing social security expenditure, and deteriorating labor productivity. Thus, the government must change the course it has followed until now. These problems can be categorized into two types: (1) human capital and (2) political institutions. The book therefore consists of two parts. The first, using a macroeconomic model, is mainly a discussion of health and education problems related to human capital. The second part deals with policy problems related to political institutions, that is, the intergenerational imbalance, preventive medicine, local public utilities, and other political issues. Through the arguments presented here, readers gain knowledge that will help to achieve the necessary economic policies in Japan.