Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T07:04:54.121Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

How Did Japanese Investments Influence International Art Prices?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2009

Takato Hiraki
Affiliation:
Kwansei Gakuin University, Institute of Business and Accounting, Nishinomiya-shi, Hyogo-ken 662-8501, Japan. thiraki@kwansei.ac.jp
Akitoshi Ito
Affiliation:
Hitotsubashi University, Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-8439, Japan. aito@ics.hit-u.ac.jp
Darius A. Spieth
Affiliation:
Louisiana State University, School of Art, 123 Art Building, Baton Rouge, LA 70803. dspieth@lsu.edu
Naoya Takezawa
Affiliation:
Nanzan University, Graduate School of Business Administration, 18 Yamazato-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya, 466-9673 Japan. ntakezaw@nanzan-u.ac.jp

Abstract

We test the luxury consumption hypothesis of Ait-Sahalia, Parker, and Yogo (2004), using a unique international art price, import/export flow, and stock market data set. We find that the demand for art by Japanese collectors is positively correlated with art prices and Japanese stock prices. This correlation is magnified during the “bubble period” of the Japanese economy (the mid-1980s to the early 1990s) and gains even further strength for works of art typically favored by Japanese collectors. Our results suggest that Japanese investors (or Japanese asset markets) indeed affect international art prices—especially during the bubble period and its aftermath.

Type
Research Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ait-Sahalia, Y.; Parker, J. A.; and Yogo, M.. “Luxury Goods and the Equity Premium.” Journal of Finance, 59 (2004), 29593004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, D. W. K. “End-of-Sample Instability Tests.” Econometrica, 71 (2003), 16611694.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Artprice.com. Art Market Trends 2006 (http://imgpublic.artprice.com/pdf/trends2006.pdf). Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d’Or, France: Artprice.com (2007).Google Scholar
Asano, Y. The Stock Market from an Investor’s Viewpoint (in Japanese), Tokyo: Chuo-Koron-Sha (1996).Google Scholar
Ash, R. The Top Ten of Everything. New York: DK Publishing (1987–present).Google Scholar
Attanasio, O.; Banks, J.; and Tanner, S.. “Asset Holding and Consumption Volatility.” Journal of Political Economy, 110 (2002), 771792.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bekaert, G.; Harvey, C.; and Lundblad, C.. “Does Financial Liberalization Spur Growth?Journal of Financial Economics, 77 (2005), 355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, J. Y. “Consumption-Based Asset Pricing.” In Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Vol. 1B, Constantinides, G., Harris, M., and Stulz, R., eds. Amsterdam: North-Holland (2003), 801887.Google Scholar
Candela, G., and Scorcu, A. E.. “A Price Index for Art Market Auctions: An Application to the Italian Market of Modern and Contemporary Oil Paintings.” Journal of Cultural Economics, 21 (1997), 175196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chancellor, E. “Kamikaze Capitalism: The Japanese Bubble Economy of the 1980s.” In Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux (1999), 283327.Google Scholar
Fase, M. M. G. “Investment in Painting: The Interaction of Monetary Return and Psychic Income.” Vienna: SUERF (2001), 776.Google Scholar
Ginsburgh, V., and Jeanfils, P.. “Long-Term Comovements in International Markets for Paintings.” European Economic Review, 39 (1995), 538548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goetzmann, W. N. “Accounting for Taste: Art and the Financial Markets over Three Centuries.” American Economic Review, 83 (1993), 13701376.Google Scholar
Goetzmann, W. N., and Spiegel, M.. “Private Value Components, and the Winner’s Curse in an Art Index.” European Economic Review, 39 (1995), 549555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamori, S. “Test of C-CAPM for Japan: 1980–1988.” Economics Letters, 38 (1992), 6772.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Japan Securities Research Institute. Securities Markets in Japan, 1992 (in Japanese), Tokyo (1992).Google Scholar
Japan Securities Research Institute. Securities Markets in Japan, 2004 (in Japanese), Tokyo (2004).Google Scholar
Kester, W. C. “The Hidden Costs of Japanese Success.” Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, 3 (1991), 9097.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNeal Lavender, C. “The Influence of Japanese Prints from the Ukiyo-e School on Selected Works of Edouard Manet, Mary Cassatt, Claude Monet, and Vincent van Gogh.” Master’s Thesis, Tulane University (1983).Google Scholar
Mehra, R., and Prescott, E. C.. “The Equity Premium: A Puzzle.” Journal of Monetary Economics, 15 (1985), 145161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mei, J., and Moses, M.. “Art as an Investment and the Underperformance of Masterpieces.” American Economic Review, 92 (2002), 16561668.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monet & Japan. Exhibition Catalog. Canberra: National Gallery of Australia (2001).Google Scholar
Newey, W., and West, K.. “A Simple, Positive Semi-Definite, Heteroskedasticity and Autocorrelation Consistent Covariance Matrix.” Econometrics, 55 (1987), 703708.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nikkei Business. “Touge wa koeta? Furyousaiken Naranu Furyou kaiga syori [Did It Get Over the Peak? Write-Offs of Non-Performing Paintings Rather than Non-Performing Loans” (in Japanese), June 28, 1999.Google Scholar
Ogawa, K. “An Empirical Investigation of the Consumption-Based Capital Asset Pricing Model in Japan: Tests by Consumption Data of Income Quintuple Groups.” Japan Economic Review, 7 (1987), 1553.Google Scholar
Pesando, J. E. “Art as an Investment: The Market for Modern Prints.” American Economic Review, 83 (1993), 10751089.Google Scholar
Pesando, J. E., and Shum, P. M.. “The Returns to Picasso’s Prints and to Traditional Financial Assets, 1977 to 1996.” Journal of Cultural Economics, 23 (1997), 183192.Google Scholar
Saltzman, C. Portrait of Dr. Gachet: The Story of a van Gogh Masterpiece. Money, Politics, Collectors, Greed, and Loss. New York: Viking (1998), 272330.Google Scholar
Schille, P. “Das goldene Zeitalter steht vor der Tür: Über Händler, Sammler und Spekulanten im weltweiten Kunstgeschäft (III), Japan [The Golden Age Is about to Arrive: About Dealers, Collectors, and Speculators in the Worldwide Art Trade (Part 3), Japan].” Der Spiegel, no. 50, 42 (Dec. 12, 1988), 194213.Google Scholar
Shiller, R. J.; Kon-ya, F.; and Tsutsui, Y.. “Why Did the Nikkei Crash? Expanding the Scope of Expectations Data Collection.” Review of Economics and Statistics, 78 (1996), 156164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spieth, D. A. “Japanese Corporate Investments in the International Art Market during the Bubble Period: An Analysis from a Financial Perspective.” Master’s Thesis, International University of Japan (2000).Google Scholar
Troster, C. “Wie ein Aufputschmittel: Die Preise für Bilder steigen wieder [Like Drugs: Prices for Paintings on the Rise Again].” Der Spiegel Special, Ware Kunst, 12 (1996), 2021.Google Scholar
Vissing-Jorgenson, A. “Limited Asset Market Participation and the Elasticity of Intertemporal Substitution.” Journal of Political Economy, 110 (2002), 825853.CrossRefGoogle Scholar