Takeo Hoshi Co-Authors Post on Freakonomics Blog
What Are the Economic Consequences of the Japanese Disaster?
03/22/2011
Anil Kashyap and Takeo Hoshi,
Freakonomics Blog
From a loss-of-life standpoint, the Japanese earthquake/tsunami may well be at least five times more severe than 9/11. While natural disasters in the past have claimed more lives, it’s extremely rare for a developed country to suffer this kind of catastrophe.
While the economic losses no doubt take a distant back seat to the human suffering, nonetheless there are many important economic questions to be answered. I can’t think of a better pair of people to do so than Anil Kashyap and Takeo Hoshi.
Together, they have been writing about the Japanese economy for 25 years. While they aren’t experts in natural disasters, they have followed the major contemporary events throughout this period, including the spectacular rise in asset prices and the 20-year collapse. (They just finished a consulting report for a Japanese think tank, titled “Why Did Japan Stop Growing?”, which is referenced in their piece below.)
Takeo Hoshi is the Pacific Economic Cooperation Professor in international economic relations at the University of California-San Diego’s School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. Anil Kashyapis a colleague of mine at the University of Chicago; specifically, he’s the Edward Eagle Brown Professor of Economics and Finance at the Booth School. He also co-authored one of the most widely read Freakonomics blog posts ever, “The F.A.Q.’s of Lehman and A.I.G.”
Anil and Takeo’s primer on the economic consequences of the Japanese disaster is excellent, and deserves to be as widely read as that earlier article.
Click here to read the full article.
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Takeo Hoshi can provide commentary on Japan's financial system, bank regulation, macroeconomic conditions and macroeconomic policy.
