Why Do Economies Stop Growing?

Professor Kyoji Fukao of the Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo will give an honorary lecture on "The Structural Causes of Japan's Lost Decades" at the XVI April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development. He talked to HSE English News Website in the run up to the conference.

Professor Kyoji Fukao of the Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo will give an honorary lecture on 'The Structural Causes of Japan's Lost Decades' at the XVI April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development. He talked to HSE English News Website in the run up to the conference.

— How did your cooperation with the HSE start and what are your current research interests?

— I know Professor Ilya B. Voskoboynikov of the Laboratory for Research in Inflation and Growth at HSE through the World KLEMS project of Harvard University. The World KLEMS initiative was set up to promote and facilitate the analysis of growth and productivity patterns around the world, based on a growth accounting framework. Ilya is in charge of data for Russia and I am in charge of data for Japan.

I am excited to take part in HSE April International Academic Conference this year and to meet with experts on urgent economic problems from all over the world. I am particularly interested in the problem ofsecular stagnation and its causes, that is to say the situation when country is experiencing very low or no economic growth.

— How can international experts influence and add value to geopolitical decisions?

— I believe that by providing new, clear and balanced perspectives on the world economy, we can effect small changes in public opinion.

— What would you say is your teaching slogan?

— In my opinion, the significance of empirical research in the social sciences can be compared to that of experiments in the natural sciences. Of utmost importance for such empirical research is the availability of long-term statistics and micro-data.

— Besides your work in economics, you have carried out research in history - about the measurement of wages between the middle ages and the present. Are you interested in Russian history? Are you planning to see some places of interest in Moscow?

— I like history. Therefore, I would like to visit the Red Square, some museums, some places related to the October Revolution. I also love Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace,’ so I would like to visit some places which are mentioned in the story, if anything of interest remains.

Prepared by Anna Chernyakhovskaya for HSE website