Hitoshi Saito

Associate Professor

Faculty of Economics , Wakayama University

Advisor to the Executive Director, Wakayama University

Contact:

Address: Sakaedani 930, Wakayama-city 640-8510, JAPAN 

Tel: +81-(0)73-457-7706 

E-mail: hsaito[at]wakayama-u.ac.jp  (please replace [at] with @)

Fields of Interest:

Public Economics, Public Finance, Local Public Finance,Educational Finance, Efficiency of Public Sector.

Research

Working Papers:

1. "Local economic effects of the fiscal decentralization reform: Evidence from enhanced local tax autonomy"(With Haruaki Hirota and Hideo Yunoue )Working paper SSRN ,April 2025 　Under review

2. "The effects of population ageing on public education in Japan : A reinterpretation using micro data",MPRA paper No.79848,June 2017　revised and resubmitted 

Published Papers in Refereed Journals :

1. “Do municipal mergers internalise spatial spillover effects? Empirical evidence from Japanese municipalities”Open Access(With Haruaki Hirota ,Hideo Yunoue and Miki Miyaki)The Annals of Regional Science,70, pp.379–406, April 2023→Working paper  version(MPRA paper No.76833)

2. "Yardstick competition of medical subsidy for infants and children"(With Yoshimi Adachi)(in Japanese)  The quarterly of social security research(kikan shakai hosho kenkyu),pp.369-380 Vol.51,No.3-4, February 2016

3.  "Reference behavior in Japanese local public education"(in Japanese)  Planning Administration,Vol.36,No.4,pp.33-39. November 2013

4. ”The Cost efficiency of Public Primary Education in Japan”(in Japanese) Kaikei-kensa Kenkyu, Vol.44. pp.41-53. September 2011

5. ”Cost Efficiency and Scale Economies of Japanese Water Utilities”(With Horn Theara) Proceedings : International Conference On Applied Economics 2011 ，pp.245-252. August 2011

Presentations in Conferences:

1. “Does municipal mergers internalize spatial spillover effects? Empirical evidence from Japanese municipalities”(With Haruaki Hirota ,Hideo Yunoue and Miki Miyaki), 73th Annual Conference of the International Institute of Public Finance (IIPF 2017), University of Tokyo , August 2017

2.  “Cost Efficiency and Scale Economies of Japanese Water Utilities”(With Theara Horn) 68th Annual Conference of the International Institute of Public Finance (IIPF 2012), Technische Universitat Dresden (program) , August 2012

3.  ”Cost efficiency and sacale economics in japanese water utilities”(With Theara Horn) Meeting of Japan Association of Public Finance at Seijyou University , October 2011

4.   ”Cost efficiency and sacale economics in japanese water utilities”(With Horn Teara) International Conference on Applied Economics 2011 , August2011.

5.   ” Mutual reference behaviors in Japanese public education” Meeting of Japan Association of Local Public Finance at Okinawa , May2011

6.   ”The Cost efficiency of Public Primary Education in Japan” Meeting of Japan Association of Local Public Finance at Aoyamagakuinn University ,June 2010

Presentations in Seminars:

1. “Does municipal mergers internalize spatial spillover effects? Empirical evidence from Japanese municipalities”(With Haruaki Hirota ,Hideo Yunoue and Miki Miyaki),The Australia-Japan Research Centre (AJRC) seminar, Crawford School of Public Polcy, Australian National University,February 2017

2. ”An Empirical Analysis of the Educational Autonomy in Japan" , Seminar in University of Hyogo , September 2012

3. ”Cost Efficiency and Scale Economies of Japanese Water Utilities”(With Theara Horn) Seminar in University of Hyogo , September 2012

4. ”An Empirical Analysis of the Educational Autonomy in Japan" , At Hokkaido University of Education , August 2012

5. ”Cost Efficiency and Scale Economies of Japanese Water Utilities”(With Theara Horn) Seminar in Toyo University , July 2012

6.   ”Cost efficiency and sacale economics in japanese water utilities”(With Theara Horn)  Water Research Workshop in Kobe university, November 2011

7.   ”An Empirical Analysis of the Educational Autonomy in Japan” Seminar in Tezukayama University , October 2011

8.   ”Cost Efficiency and Scale Economies of Japanese Water Utilities”(With Theara Horn)  Seminar on public economics in Kansai , March2011

9.   ”An Econometric Analysis on the public educational expenses in Japan;Viewpoint of Mutual reference behaviors ” the Economics Workshop of the Kwansei Gakuin University in March 2011

10.   ”The Cost efficiency of Public Primary and secondary Education in Japan” Seminar in University of Hyogo , September 2010

Grants

1. JSPS, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Reserch(B), No. ,2022-2025, Co-Researcher (Principal Researcher: Hideo Yunoue)

2. JSPS, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Reserch(B), No.20H01450 ,2020-2024, Co-Researcher (Principal Researcher: Nobuo Akai)

3. JSPS, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Reserch(B), No.15H03361,2015-2019, Co-Researcher (Principal Researcher: Nobuo Akai)

4. Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows , No.12J01400 ,2012-2013,Principal Researcher