Benchmark 2011 integrated estimates of the Japan-US price-level index for industry outputs

This paper provides new benchmark estimates of industry-level price differentials between Japan and the United States for 2011 based on a bilateral price accounting model anchored to the Japan-US input-output tables. We apply the model to translate available demand-side data on purchaser's price purchasing power parities (PPPs) for final uses (e.g., the Eurostat-OECD PPPs) and intermediate uses (e.g., the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry [METI] survey) to unmeasured producer's price PPPs for industry output. These PPPs allow us to produce price-level indexes at the industry level, which we use to assess price competitiveness between Japan and the United States We conclude that price competitiveness of Japanese service industries has considerably improved in the more recent time period. However, Japanese producers have a significant price disadvantage in comparison to their US counterparts in electricity and gas supply, and most of the agricultural producing industries.