Housing markets in the United States and Japan

Recent Books Housing Markets in the United States and Japan. Yuldo Noguchi and James M. Poterba. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1994. 276 pp. $40.00. ISBN 0-226-59015-1. This collection of essays compares the living standards, saving patterns and wealth accumulation of the U.S. and Japan. The essays, by Japanese and American scholars, examine the history of land and house prices, housing and its relaton to commuting and personal saving, and the effect of public policy on housing markets. Contributors are Yukio Noguchi, James M. Poterba, Karl E. Case, Mild Seko, Patric H. Hendershott, Tatsuo Hatta, Toru Ohkawara, Michelle J. White, Toshiaki Tachibanaki, Jonathan Skinner, and Takatoshi Ito. The papers were presented at a joint conference of the Japan Center for Economic Research and the National Bureau of Economic Research in January 1991. Macroeconomic Linkage: Savings, Exchange Rates, and Capital Flows. Takatoshi Ito and Anne O. Krueger. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1994. 414 pp. $75.00. ISBN 0-226-38669-4. Macroeconomic Linkage: Savings, Exchange Rates and Capital Flows examines the effects of East Asia's growth during the 1980s on the rest of the world. Key issues discussed are overall determinants of growth and trading relations in East Asia; capital controls and monetary policies; the effects of fluctuations of real exchange rates on industrial structures of countries; and the potential for greater regional integration. Paper topics include international growth linkages, capital mobility in Korea, Japan and Taiwan, trade balances, and prices of domestic and exported goods. The papers were presented at the third annual East Asia Seminar held in Sapporo, Japan, June 1991. Macro Markets. Robert J. Shiller. New York, NY" Oxford University Press, 1993. 254 pp. $29.95. ISBN 0-19-828782-8. In this book Robert Shiller argues the need for a set of large international markets, macro markets, for the management of the major economic risks shared by society. He proposes markets for national, regional and occupational incomes, as well as for real estate services and other major service flows. Shiller maintains that the establishment of such markets could drastically change and lessen macroeconomic fluctuations and reduce the world's inequality of income and wealth. Robert Shiller is Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics at Yale University. The Misunderstood Economy: What Counts and How to Count It. Robert Eisner. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1994. 222 pp. $22.95 ISBN 0-87584-443-X. 175