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US trade chief discusses TPP, unveils report on digital economy

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Globalization has lifted more than one billion people out of extreme poverty, but as inequality and barriers to trade remain worldwide, improved trade standards are needed and the Trans-Pacific Partnership promises to be a primary conduit of those standards, America’s top trade official told a Stanford audience on Tuesday.

Ambassador Michael Froman, the U.S. Trade Representative, spoke of the merits of the multilateral trade agreement, known as the ‘TPP,’ in a speech given at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI).

The TPP seeks to liberalize trade and investment between 12 Pacific Rim countries. Signed earlier this month, the document now faces the path to ratification through its members.

“In today’s rapidly globalizing world, the alternative to the TPP is not the status quo,” Froman told nearly one hundred affiliates and guests at the Bechtel Conference Center.

Froman cited efforts by various countries to build up alternative frameworks that promote free trade, but said they miss some components of stability and longevity that the TPP offers. For example, China’s 'one belt, one road' initiative and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a negotiation between 16 Asian countries.

The TPP would serve as an important benchmark for countries seeking to expand economic gains from trade and to level up on common “rules of the road.” He said increase in exports to the United States alone is estimated at $350 billion a year.

“Smart trade agreements like the TPP are how we shape globalization the right way,” Froman said with a call for continued U.S. leadership on the matter.

President Obama has been a strong advocate of the agreement, in line with the administration’s ‘rebalance to Asia’ strategy. The rebalance is a regional strategy that aims to recognize the growing importance of the Asia-Pacific region to U.S. national interests.

Successful passage of the TPP will reassure allies in the region of American staying power, he said.

Countries outside of the TPP have begun to express interest in becoming a party to the agreement. South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia are among them. Application to join the TPP is now closed, but we can “expect over time” that its membership would grow, he said.

At a 2013 conference, FSI scholars examined the potential impact on Taiwan should it seek membership. Outcomes from the conference are published in this report.

Froman said the TPP supports “commerce without borders” among key sectors in the United States, in particular, those found in and around Silicon Valley.

“No state stands to benefit more from the TPP than California,” he said.

Froman announced the release of a report that details TPP provisions focused exclusively on technology and intellectual property.

The event was hosted by the U.S.-Asia Security Initiative in association with FSI, the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. The Initiative aims to facilitate constructive interaction between academic and governmental experts on security challenges facing the Asia-Pacific region.

Video from the event including Froman’s speech and the Q&A is available here.

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Ambassador Michael Froman, the U.S. Trade Representative, delivers remarks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership at Stanford on Feb. 16, 2016.
Rod Searcey
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Human Capital and Labor Market of China

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9:30-12:00 Session 1: Inequality of Human Capital and Labor Market Outcomes
Location: Goldman Conference Room, Encina Hall East (4th floor)
 
The Health and Nutrition Roots of China's Human Capital Crisis
Speaker：Scott Rozelle, Stanford University, US
 
Trade Liberalization, Social Policy Development and Labour Market Outcomes of
Chinese Women and Men in the Decade after China’s Accession to the World Trade
Organization
Speaker：Xiaoyuan Dong, The University of Winnipeg, Canada
 
Mismatch of the Boston Mechanism: Evidence from Chinese College Admission
Speaker：Binzhen Wu, Tsinghua University, China
 
12:00-1:00 Lunch
Location: Philippines Conference Room, Encina Hall (3rd Floor)
 
1:00-3:00 Session 2: Determinants for Labor Market Outcomes
Location: Philippines Conference Room, Encina Hall (3rd Floor)
 
Does Informal Employment Push college graduates into Low Income Trap?
Speaker：Xiaoying Li, Sun Yat-sen University, China
Cognitive Skills, Noncognitive Skills, and School-to-Work Transitions in Rural China
Speaker：Qiuqiong Huang, University of Arkansas, US
Institutional Labor Market Segmentation and Public Sector Reform in China
Speaker：Xiaohua Li, Chinese Academy of Personnel Science, China

Goldman Conference Room
Encina Hall East (4th Floor)

Workshops

Back to the Source: Yamaha Motor's Challenges on Business Development

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Hiroshi “Hiro” Saijou is CEO and Managing Director at Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley. Prior to founding YMVSV, Hiro was a Division Manager at Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA where he led exploratory efforts in Silicon Valley.  Hiro started his career at Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. (Iwata, Japan) where he worked for almost two decades on a broad array of surface mount technology and robotics efforts in addition to new business development efforts. Hiro enjoys exploring the California Bay Area, sometimes with his golf clubs.  He speaks at conferences frequently on bold, ambitious, sometimes crazy corporate innovation. Hiro earned a software engineering degree from Kyushu University, one of Japan’s National Seven Universities.

SEMINAR DESCRIPTION

The introduction of Yamaha Motor's business development effort utilizing Silicon Valley Ecosystem. Growth of business and corporation to deliver more value to the society is essential desire for all of us, but there are so many options to be taken. In this presentation, we will share our thoughts and experience; what is our objectives, how Yamaha Motor started this business development tasks, why we need to incorporate Yamaha Motor Ventures and how we did it, what are our ongoing ambitious / unique / crazy projects.

AGENDA

4:15pm: Doors open
4:30pm-5:30pm: Talk and Discussion
5:30pm-6:00pm: Networking

RSVP REQUIRED
 
For more information about the Silicon Valley-New Japan Project please visit: http://www.stanford-svnj.org/
Hiro Saijou, CEO and Managing Director, Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley Inc.
Seminars
Stanford Silicon Valley-New Japan Project

Chronicles of the Silicon Valley - Japan Relationship and Lessons Learned: An insider's view of large firms, startup firms, and entrepreneurs since the 1970s

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Masa ISHII is founder and a Managing Director of AZCA, Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in US-Japan corporate development for high technology companies.  To date, AZCA has helped numerous companies in Japan and US in developing their new business across the Pacific Ocean.  Masa is also a Managing Director of AZCA Venture Partners, a venture capital firm whose most recent fund specializes in the domain where IT/Electronics and Life science converge.  Formerly, Masa worked at McKinsey & Company, Inc. and at IBM. Masa is a frequent speaker and writer on issues involving international business development in the high technology industry. He is a visiting professor at Waseda University Business School and at Graduate School of Engineering, Shizuoka University.  Masa holds a Bachelor of Engineering in mathematical engineering and instrumentation physics from the University of Tokyo and a Master of Science in computer science from Stanford University.

 

SEMINAR DESCRIPTION:

It was in early 1970s that Japanese companies first started interacting with Silicon Valley.  As Silicon Valley grew, many Japanese companies started trying to work with high-tech start-ups in Silicon Valley with the purpose of innovating and developing new businesses. More recently, start-up companies and SMEs from Japan have started taking root in Silicon Valley by fully taking advantage of its high technology infrastructure.  In doing so, however, many Japanese companies failed to achieve their strategic goals.  These hard-learned lessons over time are bound to be forgotten as the new generation of Japanese companies attempt to enter the Silicon Valley’s ecosystem unless they are recorded and the memory is institutionalized. Having lived and worked between Japan and Silicon Valley over the past 30 years, the speaker will share an insider's view of large firms, start-ups and entrepreneurs since the 1970s and his direct experience and reminiscence in dealing with companies in Japan and Silicon Valley, so that the long-built up experience of firms entering this region for the last 40 years can prove to be of benefit to others in the future.

RSVP REQUIRED:

AGENDA:
4:15pm: Doors open
4:30pm-5:30pm: Lecture, followed by discussion
5:30pm-6:00pm: Networking

For more information about the Silicon Valley-New Japan Project please visit: http://www.stanford-svnj.org/

Philippines Conference RoomEncina Hall, 3rd Floor616 Serra SteetStanford, CA 94305
Masa Ishii, Managing Director of AZCA, Inc and Visiting Professor, WASEDA Business School; Graduate School of Engineering, Shizuoka University
Seminars
Stanford Silicon Valley-New Japan Project

Silicon Valley and Asian Economies

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This event is co-sponsored by NHK WORLD, Global Agenda, and the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law.

About NHK and Global Agenda

NHK WORLD is NHK's international broadcast service. NHK is Japan’s national public broadcasting corporation and operates international television, radio, and internet services; together, they are known as NHK WORLD.

The aims of NHK WORLD are:

  • To provide both domestic and international news to the world accurately and promptly
  • To present information on Asia from various perspectives, making the best use of NHK's global network
  • To serve as a vital information lifeline in the event of major accidents and natural disasters
  • To present broadcasts with great accuracy and speed on many aspects of Japanese culture and lifestyles, recent developments in society and politics, the latest scientific and industrial trends, and Japan's role and opinions regarding important global issues
  • To foster mutual understanding between Japan and other countries and promote friendship and cultural exchange

“Global Agenda” is a new program within NHK WORLD TV where world opinion leaders discuss various issues facing Japan and the rest of the world today.

Symposium Overview

Innovation is essential for economic growth, especially in advanced economies. As the catch-up phase of economic growth is ending or has ended for many Asian economies, they face the challenge of transforming their economic systems to ones that encourage innovations and use those as the most important source for growth. The panel will discuss various issues surrounding the economic system that is favorable for innovations. Silicon Valley, where Stanford University is located, has an ecosystem that is conducive to innovations. The panel will pay special attention to implications for Japan and other Asian economies.

Panelists

William Barnnett, Professor of Business Leadership, Strategy, and Organizations, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Francis Fukuyama, Director, Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, Freeman Spogli Insititute for International Studies

Takeo Hoshi, Director, Japan Program, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center

Kenji Kushida, Research Associate, Japan Program, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center

Note

This event will be recorded and broadcast worldwide. By registering to attend you hereby grant Stanford University and NHK World permission to use encode, digitize, copy, edit, excerpt, transmit, and display the audio or videotape of your participation in this event as well as use your name, voice, likeness, biographic information, and ancillary material in connection with such audio or videotape. You understand that this event will be broadcast worldwide, which will be available to the general public. This event may also be webcast over one or more websites. By registering to attend you grant, without limitations, perpetual rights for the use and transmission and display of audio or videotape of this event. This permission is irrevocable and royalty free, and you understand that the University and NHK will act in reliance on this permission.

RSVP

RSVP for this event is mandatory as seating is limited. Doors will open at 3:00pm and the event will begin promptly at 3:30pm. Since the event is being recorded, we ask that participants arrive on time.

William Barnnett Professor of Business Leadership, Strategy, and Organizations- Graduate School of Business
Francis Fukuyama Director, Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law- FSI
Takeo Hoshi Director, Japan Program- Shorenstein APARC
Kenji Kushida Research Associate, Japan Program- Shorenstein APARC
Symposiums

Capital Market Regulation in Japan after the Global Financial Crisis

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This paper is examines the evolution of Japan’s capital markets and the related regulatory reforms after the Global Financial Crisis. We start by looking at the importance of capital markets in the Japanese financial system. We study how the size of financial flows through capital markets relative to those through the banking sector changed since the 1980s in Section 2. Then, in Section 3, we look at how Japan’s financial system responded to the Global Financial Crisis. We find that the disruption of the financial system in Japan was small. Section 4 then surveys the financial regulatory changes in Japan since the Global Financial Crisis. While the Japanese regulators tightened the regulation to improve the financial stability as the regulators in the U.S. and Europe did, they also continued the efforts to develop capital markets in Japan. The efforts continue and receive strong endorsement from Abenomics, which put an emphasis on economic structural reform to restore growth in Japan. We examine the capital market policies in Abenomics in Section 5. Section 6 concludes.

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World Scientific in International Economics
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Takeo Hoshi

NATO Expansion and the Swap Lines: the Unspoken Geopolitics of the Financial Crisis in Europe, 2007-2013

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2008 witnessed a double shock to the post Cold War order. The North Atlantic financial system suffered a historic crisis, which could be managed only by unprecedented financial intervention by the US state. Weeks before Wall Street imploded, Russia invaded Georgia, a country which earlier in the year had been promised NATO membership. Too little remarked upon at the time, this paper will argue that this conjuncture revealed stark limits to the North Atlantic system of security and financial stability, which since 2013 have come back to haunt us in the on-going Ukrainian crisis. 
 

Adam Tooze is the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History at Columbia University.

Note: New Location

CISAC Central Conference Room

Adam Tooze Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History Speaker Columbia University
Seminars

Understanding Investors and Preferred Stock Financings in Silicon Valley

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Joseph Z. Perkins, a partner in Orrick's Silicon Valley office, is a member of the Technology Companies Group, which advises emerging companies and venture capital firms. Mr. Perkins focuses his practice on providing private venture financing and merger and acquisition services to Internet, high tech, and clean technology companies in the United States and Japan.

 

Some of Mr. Perkins's current and former clients include the following:
• Bleacher Report (Sports media; acquired by Turner Broadcasting)
• Doki Doki (stealth)
• FOVE (Virtual reality hardware)
• Getaround (Car sharing community)
• Instagram (Photo social media; acquired by Facebook)
• iSpace (Robotics)
• Life360 (Family connectivity and safety)
• Orchestra - aka Mailbox (e-mail management; acquired by Dropbox)
• Ooma (VoiP hardware)
• Pinterest (Social Media)
• Say Media - fka VideoEgg (Advertising)
• Social Finance (social lending)
• UniversityNow (Online education)
• WHILL (Personal Mobility)

Prior to receiving his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, Mr. Perkins spent four years as an officer of a company that provides language and travel services to Japanese travelers.

Seminar Description

The idea of raising money through venture capital can be daunting if you’ve never gone through that process before.  In this presentation, we will discuss various aspects of the fundraise process, including how to choose your investor and prepare for a term sheet, key terms to look for in the financing, and how to get to close as quickly as possible.  Learn about different types of investors, what they look for in their potential investments, and what they bring to the table in accelerating a startup’s growth.  We’ll also review specific scenarios and how various liquidation preferences can impact your company’s exit.

 
RSVP Required

NOTE: The date for this seminar has changed to February 23, 2016.

Agenda
4:15pm: Doors open
4:30pm-5:30pm: Lecture, followed by discussion
5:30pm-6:00pm: Networking

For more information about the Silicon Valley-New Japan Project please visit: http://www.stanford-svnj.org/

Philippines Conference RoomEncina Hall, 3rd Floor616 Serra SteetStanford, CA 94305
Joseph Z. Perkins, Partner, Technology Companies Group, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Seminars
Stanford Silicon Valley-New Japan Project

Memorial conference celebrates life work of Masahiko Aoki

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A conference that honored the life and scholarly contributions of Stanford economist Masahiko Aoki was held at Stanford. Dozens of friends, family and community members paid tribute to Aoki, the Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Professor of Japanese Studies and Professor of Economics, emeritus, who died in July at the age of 77.

Eleven renowned economists and social scientists gave talks on Aoki’s extensive fields of research in economic theory, institutional analysis, corporate governance, and the Japanese and Chinese economies at the Dec. 4 conference, which was followed by a memorial ceremony the next day.

“When we contacted people to speak at this conference, few people turned us down,” said Stanford professor Takeo Hoshi. “The reason for this is Masa. It shows how much Masa was respected and how much his work is valued.”

The events were hosted by the Japan Program at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), Graduate School of Business, Department of Economics and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR).

aoki colleagues

Aoki came to Stanford in 1967 as an assistant professor, held faculty appointments at Kyoto University and Harvard, and returned to Stanford in 1984. He retired to emeritus status at Stanford in 2005.

Throughout the conference, Aoki was described as an astute professor and colleague, valuable mentor and loyal friend by the many speakers and participants who shared works, stories and multimedia featuring their interactions with Aoki.

Aoki pioneered the field of comparative institutional analysis (CIA) with a team of scholars at Stanford: Avner Greif, John Litwack, Paul Milgrom and Yingyi Qian, among others. CIA analyzes and compares different institutions that evolve to regulate different societies.

Masahiko Aoki (far left) is pictured with colleagues on the Stanford campus in the late 1960s.

“Masa had a good background in looking at the economy as a whole, financial institutions as a whole – not just how numbers or actors economically interact – but also the people who interact within a given institutional framework,” said Koichi Hamada, a professor emeritus at Yale University. 

“Masa had a good background in looking at the economy as a whole, financial institutions as a whole – not just how numbers or actors economically interact…”

-Koichi Hamada, Yale University

Aoki applied a systematic lens to everything he studied, a “take society as a total entity” approach, Hamada said.

Aoki grew up in Japan, and developed a deep interest in Japanese politics at an early age. He was actively involved in student movements in the early 1960s, at the heart of which was a campaign against a controversial U.S.-Japan security treaty. China became another great interest of his as the country began to undergo economic transformation and modernization.

Throughout his career, Aoki traveled to Japan and China often, and sought to better inform policy debates by engaging scholars, government leaders and journalists there.

He believed in sharing lessons learned from his own scholarly analyses on what constitute institutions, particularly the “people” aspects – the employees, their cognitive abilities and levels of participation.

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Top left to right: Yingyi Qian of Tsinghau University talks with Avner Greif of Stanford University and Hugh Patrick of Columbia University. / Koichi Hamada of Yale University delivers his remarks titled "Masahiko Aoki: A Social Scientist." Bottom: Reiko Aoki, the wife of Masahiko Aoki, listens in to Kenneth Arrow, a professor emeritus at Stanford University. Credit: Rod Searcey

Aoki was not only a scholar of institutions but also a builder of them.

In 2005, Aoki helped oversee the development of the Center for Industrial Development and Environmental Governance at Tsinghua University in Beijing, which held numerous roundtables in its first decade of existence, and continues to this day.

“Amid a time of diplomatic tensions between China and Japan…Masa was able to bring Japanese, Chinese and American economists together to study and do research,” said Yingyi Qian, dean and professor at the school of economics and management at Tsinghua.

At Stanford, Aoki played a leading role in the creation of the Stanford Japan Center and a multi-day conference that convened annually in Kyoto on issues of mutual concern between Asia-Pacific countries and the United States.

“Masa Aoki’s legacy will serve as an integral guidepost for many years to come. May his soul rest in peace.”

-Kotaro Suzumura, Hitotsubashi University

Earlier this year, Aoki was hospitalized for lung disease. Even at that stage, he worked tirelessly to revise a paper that examines the institutional development of China and Japan in the late 19th to early 20th centuries.

That paper titled, “Three-person game of institutional resilience versus transition: A model and China-Japan comparative history,” was presented at the conference by Jiahua Che, one of two scholars that Aoki asked to finish and publish the work.

Aoki was also fondly remembered for his mentorship of students at Stanford and other universities he taught at.

“He was an original and unique professor – quite different from others that I’ve met in many respects. He was generous with his time, not hierarchical,” said Miguel Angel Garcia Cestona, who studied for a doctorate at Stanford and now teaches at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona.

Garcia Cestona, among other former students, spoke of Aoki as a friend and shared memories of their former professor hosting them at his home.

aoki overlook

Masahiko Aoki in Northern California, 2014.

Related Links:

Conference agenda

Stanford obituary

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Stanford professor Takeo Hoshi opens a day-long conference at Stanford celebrating the life and scholarly work of Masahiko Aoki, Dec. 4, 2015.
Rod Searcey
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Those Who Know Most: Insider Trading in Eighteenth-Century Amsterdam

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This paper studies how private information is incorporated into prices, using a unique setting from the eighteenth century that is closer to stylized models of price discovery than modern-day markets. Specifically, the paper looks at English securities traded in both London and Amsterdam. Private information reached Amsterdam through sailing boats that sailed only twice a week and in adverse weather could not sail at all. Results are consistent with a Kyle model in which informed agents trade strategically. Most importantly, the speed of information revelation in Amsterdam depended on the expected time until the private signal would become public.

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Publication Type
Journal Articles
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Journal Publisher
Journal of Political Economy
Authors
Peter Koudijs
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