Toshiaki Shoji

ABSTRACT When prices are expected to rise, consumers are incentivized to engage in intertemporal substitution. This effect tends to be larger for longer‐term storable goods, because consumers stockpile these goods for future consumption. Using Japan's consumption tax hike in 2014, I examine consumers' purchasing behavior and find the following. First, price‐sensitive consumers significantly increased purchases of storable goods before the tax hike, but not purchases of less storable goods. Second, consumers frequently buying lower‐quality goods increased purchases of storable goods, while reducing purchases of less storable goods. These purchasing patterns suggest that some consumers faced liquidity constraints and prioritized purchases of long‐term storable goods over short‐term storable goods. By characterizing a discontinuity in consumers' purchasing patterns, I estimate the proportion of liquidity constrained consumers.

<title>Abstract</title>Using a dataset that recorded a large number of investment transactions in China from 1991 to 2018, we examine the statistical properties of the Chinese venture capital (VC) syndication network. Our main findings are as follows. First, the number of investment transactions sharply increased after 2014. Second, more than half of the VC firms are located in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. Third, the degree distribution becomes roughly straight on a log–log plot. Fourth, the hypothesis that the degree distribution follows a power-law distribution is not rejected for 2015 and 2016. Fifth, better connected VC firms increase their connectivity faster, which suggests the existence of preferential attachment.