Although fertility decline is global, outcomes differ widely across countries despite similar economic development. This study examines how fertility is shaped by interactions between formal and informal institutions related to gender equality. From an institutional economics perspective, we treat gender ideology as an informal institution and gender equality in legal frameworks as a formal institution, focusing on the effects of their misalignment. Using cross-national panel data and fixed-effects models, we analyze links among fertility, gender ideology, and institutional mismatch. Results show that gender-egalitarian ideologies are positively associated with fertility, while mismatches correlate with lower fertility when gender-equal laws advance faster than gender norms. Thus, fertility decline reflects not only limited gender equality but also incoherence between institutional domains. By highlighting the interactions between formal and informal institutions and their coevolution, this study reframes low fertility as an outcome of institutional misalignment and stresses the importance of institutional coherence in demographic changes.
Tsuneo Ishikawa took his first steps as an academic researcher in the United States and developed research communication with Stephen Marglin, Samuel Bowles, and Herbert Gintis at Harvard University. After returning to the University of Tokyo in Japan, he assumed the role of a young leader in economics, studying “the theory of income and wealth,” particularly, the theory of capital accumulation and income distribution, corporate savings, the dual labor market, and social common capital, using analytical methods at the cutting edge of modern economics. This study re-examines Ishikawa’s theoretical and empirical research, fully considering the broad range of research achievements in economics during the era. In doing so, we pay particular attention to the following points. First, we chronologically reconstruct the development of Ishikawa’s theoretical framework and examine the overall structure. Second, we carefully examine Ishikawa’s “total image of the economy” and institutional understanding on which each theoretical and empirical study was based, as well as the analytical tools he used in his research. Through this study, we reaffirm the potential for the development of Ishikawa’s economic theory and consider the further evolution of our institutional economics in the 21st century.
This paper responds both to the renewed interest in the relationship between macroeconomic growth and economic inequality and to calls for rigorous empirical research on the dynamics of regional inequality within the context of evolutionary economic geography. We focus on the long-term trajectories of prefecture-level regional inequality and national economic growth in Japan between 1957 and 2013. Rather than imposing strong a priori assumptions about the relationship between regional inequality and economic growth, we adopt a conventional Vector Autoregressive (VAR) modelling methodology to bring data to bear on the theoretical conjectures embodied in Williamson’s inverted-U hypothesis. Our findings indicate a positive contemporaneous relationship between national economic growth and regional inequality throughout the study period, suggesting that the hypothesized positive relationship between growth and inequality persists into the “post-industrial” phase of a national economy. We also find that economic growth in the previous year is associated with an increase in current regional inequality, while there is no evidence that rising inequality precedes national economic growth, even in the most recent decades, thereby challenging the claim that inequality must be “tolerated” to facilitate collective growth. Future research may provide further insights by, for example, examining the sensitivity of these findings to different geographical scale of analysis.
Japan’s outstanding stock of government bonds is exceptionally large, surpassing the levels observed in countries such as Greece that have experienced sovereign debt crises. Modern monetary theory maintains that expanding fiscal spending is unproblematic if it does not lead to inflation and that inflation can be controlled through tax increases. This study constructs a post-Keynesian macrodynamic model in an oligopolistic economy to examine the effects of fiscal policies targeting the inflation rate and the output–capital ratio. The findings demonstrate that both fiscal policies targeting the inflation rate and countercyclical fiscal policies stabilize the economy.
This paper examines the role of historical contingencies and path dependence in shaping regional industrial trajectories, drawing on evolutionary economics and institutional theory. Through case studies such as SAP’s emergence in Germany, the decline of the coal industry in Germany, and contemporary examples like Türkiye’s indigenous defense industry and South Korea’s Smart Green City Project, the study highlights how critical junctures and self-reinforcing mechanisms lock regions into specific developmental paths. The analysis reveals that early technological, institutional, and entrepreneurial decisions—such as IBM’s influence on SAP or Vecihi Hürkuş’s thwarted aviation innovations in Türkiye—create path dependencies that constrain future industrial evolution. Conversely, the paper explores how institutions and policies can either reinforce these lock-ins (e.g., Germany’s coal subsidies) or enable path-breaking diversification (e.g., Barcelona’s 22@ innovation district). Theoretical insights from evolutionary and institutional economics underscore the interplay between contingency and structure, emphasizing the non-deterministic nature of regional trajectories. Future research directions include the impact of artificial intelligence on regional lock-ins and the cultural dimensions of industrial evolution. By bridging evolutionary economics and economic geography, this work contributes to both theoretical debates and practical strategies for sustainable regional development.
