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Collaboration with Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), Japan
There is considerable fascination with the changes that are taking place in the Japanese and US economies and even more interest in the trade relationships between the two countries. Far less is known, however, about the nature of the changes that are taking place at the regional level in both countries - are they similar? what is happening to the size and spatial organization of interregional trade within both countries? are regional economies in Japan diversifying in the same way that similar economies are in the US?
To provide the basis for an extensive study of regional economies in both countries, the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory and the Central Research Institute of the Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) in Tokyo, Japan, have entered into a three-year collaborative agreement. As part of this agreement, REAL will assist researchers in CRIEPI in the construction of regional econometric-input-output models for selected Japanese regions. These models will be structured in similar form to REAL's US models, thus enabling a more accurate and useful comparative basis.
In the summer of 1998, Mr. Arai and Dr. Ohkawara from CRIEPI visited REAL's offices in Chicago and Urbana. Meetings were arranged with senior officials at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In Urbana, Mr. Arai presented a signed copy of the Memorandum of Agreement between CRIEPI and REAL to Chancellor Michael Aiken. While this Agreement initially focuses on REAL and CRIEPI's collaboration, the potential exists for other research activities to be conducted
In addition to these activities, a new series of collaborative Discussion
Papers will be prepared (beginning with 99-CR-1) to help disseminate the
results of the research. Colleagues from both institutions will exchange
visits, some for periods of several months. In Fall, 1998, Mr. Kazumi Hitomi
from CRIEPI was in residence at REAL and Geoffrey Hewings from REAL will
spend a week with CRIEPI colleagues in Tokyo and Hiroshima, the center of
the Chugoku region for which the first CRIEPI-REAL model will be constructed.
CRIEPI Researchers for Collaboration
CRIEPI-REAL Collaborative Research Series