Research

Working Papers

Image Concerns in Organizations (joint with Jenny Kragl), May 2026. SSRN
The Allocation of Decision Authority in Three-Stage Decision Processes with Applications to Artificial Intelligence in Organizations (joint with Kimiyuki Morita), March 2026. SSRN
Complementarities between Long-Term Relationships and Short-Term Contracts: Case of Early Modern Japan (joint with Takashi Shimizu and Yasuo Takatsuki), December 11, 2025. RIEB Discussion Paper Series No.2025-33

Image Concerns, Corporate Culture, and Recognition in Organizations (joint with Jenny Kragl)
Delegation and Decision Process in Organizations (joint with Kimiyuki Morita)

Relational Incentive Contracts with Hidden Action and Unequal Discounting (joint with Eric S. Chou and Chien-Lung Chen), September 2024.
Organizing for Change: The Optimality of Pro-Changer Organizations
Organizing for Change: Preference Diversity, Effort Incentives, and Separation of Decision and Execution. RIETI Discussion Paper 15-E-082, July 2015. nontechnical summary in Japanese
Writing Legally Unenforceable Contracts to Facilitate Relationships, June 2011. pdf
The Theories of International Outsourcing and Integration: A Theoretical Overview from the Perspective of Organizational Economics. JCER Discussion Paper No.96, July 2006.
The Firm as a Legal Entity: What Distinguishes Wholly Owned Subsidiaries from Internal Divisions in Japan? (joint with Zenichi Shishido). May 2001. (abstract and paper)

What Do Contracts Do to Facilitate Relationships?, Japanese Economic Review 74 (3), 2023, 333-354. doi Sharedit link
Information Acquisition, Decision Making, and Implementation in Organizations (joint with Kimiyuki Morita), Management Science 69(1), 2023, 446-463. doi Dimensions Summary
Formal Contracts, Relational Contracts, and the Threat-Point Effect (joint with Hodaka Morita). American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 7(3), 2015, 318-346. doi Dimensions Summary
Complementarities among Authority, Accountability, and Monitoring: Evidence from Japanese Business Groups, Journal of the Japanese and International Economies 22(2), 2008, 207-228 (joint with Tatsuya Kikutani and Osamu Hayashida). doi Dimensions Summary
Moral Hazard and Other-Regarding Preferences, Japanese Economic Review 55(1), 2004, 18-45. doi Dimensions Summary

Reprinted with an newly written addendum in Shinsuke Ikeda, Hideaki Kiyoshi Kato, Fumio Ohtake, and Yoshiro Tsutsui (eds.), Behavioral Interactions, Markets, and Economic Dynamics: Topics in Behavioral Economics. Springer (2016), Chapter 17, 483-517.

Corporate Restructuring in Japan, Part I: Can M-Form Organization Manage Diverse Businesses? Japanese Economic Review 54(1), 2003, 49-73. doi Dimensions Summary
Moral Hazard and Renegotiation with Multiple Agents, Review of Economic Studies 68(1), 2001, 1-20 (joint with Shingo Ishiguro). doi Dimensions Summary
Job Design, Delegation, and Cooperation: A Principal-Agent Analysis, European Economic Review 38(3-4), 1994, 691-700. doi Dimensions Summary
Coalitions, Incentives, and Risk Sharing, Journal of Economic Theory 60(2), 1993, 410-27. doi Dimensions Summary

Reprinted in David Martimort (ed.), The Economic Theory of Incentives. Edward Elgar (2017), Volume II, Chapter 13.

Cooperation in Hierarchical Organizations: An Incentive Perspective, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 8(2), 1992, 321-45. doi Dimensions Summary
Japanese Human Resource Management from the Viewpoint of Incentive Theory, Ricerche Economiche 45 (2-3), 1991, 345-76.

Reprinted in Masahiko Aoki and Ronald Dore (eds.), The Japanese Firm: The Sources of Competitive Strength. Oxford University Press (1994), Chapter 9, 233-264. doi

Incentives to Help in Multi-Agent Situations, Econometrica 59(3), 1991, 611-36. abstract doi Dimensions Summary

Reprinted in David Martimort (ed.), The Economic Theory of Incentives. Edward Elgar (2017), Volume I, Chapter 39.
Reprinted in Peter M. Jackson (ed.), The Economics of Organization and Bureaucracy. Edward Elgar (2013), Volume I, Chapter 23.
Featured in Cheap Talk, "How should State, C.I.A., N.C.T.C. etc. be incentivized to work together?", January 7, 2010,

Information Processing Capacities of the Firm, Journal of the Japanese and International Economies 1 (1987), 299-326. doi Dimensions Summary

Business Portfolio Restructuring of Japanese Firms in the 1990s: Entry and Exit Analysis, in Masahiko Aoki, Gregory Jackson, and Hideaki Miyajima (eds.), Corporate Governance in Japan: Institutional Change and Organizational Diversity. Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 2007, Chapter 8, 227-256 (joint with Tatsuya Kikutani and Osamu Hayashida).
Do Positions and Tenure of Top Executives Affect Their Attitude? in T. Tachibanaki (ed.), Who Runs Japanese Business?: Management and Motivation in the Firm. Edward Elgar, 1998, Chapter 3, 56-78 (joint with Hiroshi Teruyama).
Effort Incentives: Evidence from Japanese Data, in T. Tachibanaki (ed.), Who Runs Japanese Business?: Management and Motivation in the Firm. Edward Elgar, 1998, Chapter 5, 97-125 (joint with Hiroshi Teruyama).
Decentralised Personnel Management, in I. Ohashi and T. Tachibanaki (eds.), Internal Labour Market, Incentives and Employment. Macmillan Press, 1998, Chapter 5, 98-125 (joint with Osamu Hayashida).
Coordination, Specialization, and Incentives in Product Development Organization, in Masahiko Aoki and Ronald Dore (eds.), The Japanese Firm: The Sources of Competitive Strength. Oxford University Press (1994), Chapter 10, 265-284. doi

Economic Theories of Middle Management: Monitoring, Communication, and the Middle Manager's Dilemma, Japan Labor Review Vol.7, No,4, 2010, 5-22 (joint with Fumitoshi Moriya). pdf
Job Design and Incentives in Hierarchies with Team Production, Hitotsubashi Journal of Commerce and Management 36(1), 2001, 1-17. JSTOR
The Economics of the "Company Man" Japanese Economic Studies 24(6), November-December 1996, 29-55. doi
``Social Relations and Incentive Contracts,'' Kyoto University Economic Review 61(1), 1991, 35-55. doi

``Hideshi Itoh, President of the Japanese Economic Association 2022–2023,'' Japanese Economic Review 74(3), 2023, 331. doi
``2018 Japanese Economic Association Nakahara Prize Announcement,'' Japanese Economic Review 70(1), 2019, 28-29. doi
``Comments on Part I: Complementarity,'' in Enterprise Law: Contracts, Markets, and Laws in the US and Japan, edited by Zenichi Shishido. Edward Elgar, 2014, pp.118-121.
``Organizational Innovation and Corporate Performance,'' Journal of the Japanese and International Economies 22(2), 2008: 143-145 (joint with George Baker and Takeo Hoshi). doi
Book Review: Small Firms in the Japanese Economy by D. Hugh Whittaker, Cambridge University Press. Journal of Economic Literature 36(4), December 1998, 2186-8. JSTOR
``Guest Editor's Introduction,'' Journal of the Japanese and International Economies 11(3), 1997, 314-318. doi
Japanese Translation: Paul Milgrom and John Roberts, Economics, Organization and Management. Prentice-Hall, 1992 (with Masahiro Okuno-Fujiwara and Haruo Imai).
Japanese Translation: John McMillan, Games, Strategies, and Managers: How Managers Can Use Game Theory to Make Better Business Decisions. Oxford University Press, 1992 (with Osamu Hayashida).