Japan’s Prefectural-level KLEMS: Productivity Comparison and Service Price Differences

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Abstract

This article compiles the Regional-level Japan Industrial Productivity (R-JIP) database for Japan’s 47 prefectures and conducts productivity comparisons. A key challenge is handling service price variation across regions. Applying the Country-Product-Dummy (CPD) method to estimate cross-regional price-level differences in five service industries, the authors find that adjusting for price variation reduces the standard deviation of cross-regional TFP difference indices by approximately 13 per cent. The Balassa-Samuelson effect — larger in economically richer regions — is confirmed at the regional level.

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