The Japanese Bonus System and Human Capital

Citation

Hart RA & Kawasaki S (1995) The Japanese Bonus System and Human Capital. Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 9 (3), pp. 225-244. https://doi.org/10.1006/jjie.1995.1012

Abstract
This study finds empirical support for the view that the Japanese bonus system represents, to a significant extent, returns to job-specific tenure. The bonus also appears to play a significantly different role from regular wage payments. An attempt is made to overcome some of the difficulties in using the annual cross section data of the Basic Survey of Wage Structure, an important data source of earlier studies. A pseudo-panel is constructed which tracks given age cohorts through their years of general experience and firm-specific tenure between the years 1971 and 1991. There is evidence of systematic changes in compensation growth in relation to specific tenure among age cohorts.

Journal
Journal of the Japanese and International Economies: Volume 9, Issue 3