Our Services
Learn more about UTEcon's practice areas
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Businesses
UTEcon optimizes decision-making in finance, accounting, human resources, and other important business components with empirical microeconomic knowledge and tools.Major Clients
Private firms
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Pricing Strategy
We provide a range of consulting services on pricing. Our menu comprises the following:- Estimating price elasticity
- Estimating the effects of coupons and loyalty programs
- Designing dynamic pricing, price discrimination, and subscription pricing
- Creating pricing algorithms based on reinforcement learning
- Structural modeling for evaluating counterfactual pricing scenarios
- Testing A/B and other designs for pricing
Experts
Atsuko Izumi / Kohei Kawaguchi / Kensuke Kubo / Takeshi Murooka / Masahiro Shibata /Kosuke Uetake / Naoki Wakamori / Yasutora Watanabe
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Quantitative and Behavioral Marketing
Our team conducts cost-benefit analyses for advertisements and campaigns by estimating their causal effects on profits. We use microeconomic theory and structural econometrics to model and estimate consumers’ purchasing behavior that allows us to construct an effective marketing strategy for our clients. To effectively advertise different products on the web, ecommerce sites, and direct emails, our team supports clients by modelling recommended algorithms that use the consumers’ attributes and their purchasing records. The algorithms are then updated based on consumers’ reactions to the product recommendations.Experts
Kohei Kawaguchi / Kensuke Kubo / Takeshi Murooka / Masahiro Shibata / Kosuke Uetake / Naoki Wakamori / Yasutora Watanabe / Toshihiko Yamasaki
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Human Resources and Market Design
Our team uses big data to build algorithms that improve the match between vacancies and seekers on job search platforms as well as in staffing agencies and other organizations. Our team also provides match-improvement services for internal transfers with the aim of improving the client firms’ productivity. In addition, we support our clients by conducting programs that measure employees’ productivity. Our experts on labor and market design have deep experience in terms of both research and practice.Experts
Atsuko Izumi / Daiji Kawaguchi / Kohei Kawaguchi / Shintaro Kawaguchi / Fuhito Kojima / Shunya Noda / Hiroaki Odahara / Hideo Owan / Kosuke Uetake / Yasutora Watanabe
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Auction
Our team designs auctions to help clients efficiently “discover” the trading price. The auction is one of the most intensively studied subjects of economic theory. Furthermore, auctions have been practically implemented in many business settings, including those of e-commerce, real estate transactions, and Internet ad slot allocations. Auction theory has articulated that we can improve both buyer and seller’s profit by designing the auction rule appropriately. Our experts on auction theory and empirical analysis of auctions will provide an optimal auction design for the problem our clients face.Experts
Fuhito Kojima / Shunya Noda / Hiroaki Odahara
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Public Policy
UTEcon assists evidence-based policy making (EBPM) through designing randomized controlled trials and applying empirical microeconomic techniques.Major Clients
Governments/NGOs/international organizations
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Evidence-based Policymaking and Program Evaluation
We provide consulting services to governments to enhance their efforts in evidence-based policy making (EBPM). Our experts include labor economists and econometricians who can apply causal inference methods to estimate the effects of programs and policies on key performance indicators. We help design experiments for policy evaluation and measure their effect through RCT, difference- in-differences, regression discontinuity, matching, bunching, and structural modelling. Our experts have been involved in a significant number of government committees that evaluate national and regional policies in addition to their research and project experience in the area of policy evaluation.Experts
Atsuko Izumi / Daiji Kawaguchi / Kohei Kawaguchi / Shintaro Kawaguchi / Kensuke Kubo / Daisuke Miyakawa / Hideo Owan / Akinobu Shuto / Kosuke Uetake / Yasutora Watanabe
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Regulatory
In various policy and regulation matters, litigations, and disputes, UTEcon provides rigorous economic analyses applying latest academic research. Our team aims to promote fair judgement with appropriate evidence in court and regulatory authorities.Major Clients
Law firms/private firms/governments
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Merger Review
Our team provides rigorous analyses to estimate the competitive effect of mergers. The types of analyses covered are market definition, upward pricing pressure, and merger simulation (including the evaluation of efficiency improvements). Our experts include leading researchers in empirical industrial organization who apply the latest methods developed in academia to actual cases. Our team also provides assistance for data submission to competition authorities.Experts
Atsuko Izumi / Kohei Kawaguchi / Kensuke Kubo / Takeshi Murooka /Kosuke Uetake / Naoki Wakamori / Yasutora Watanabe
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Private Monopolization and Unfair Trade Practices
Our experts provide economic analyses to quantify the competitive effects of vertical restraints and other types of conduct that are the subject of investigation by antitrust authorities or private lawsuits. By using state-of-the-art methods, our experts carry out the evaluation of procompetitive effects as well as the estimation of damages. Our team has extensive experience in the economic analysis of vertical restraints as well as the abuse of superior bargaining cases.Experts
Atsuko Izumi / Kohei Kawaguchi / Kensuke Kubo / Takeshi Murooka / Kosuke Uetake / Naoki Wakamori / Yasutora Watanabe
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Unreasonable Restraint of Trade (cartels and bid-rigging)
Our team uses the latest knowledge from academia to estimate damages in cartel and bid- rigging cases. Some of our team members have experience with drafting reports in foreign jurisdictions that facilitates our support of clients in international cases.Experts
Atsuko Izumi / Kohei Kawaguchi / Kensuke Kubo / Takeshi Murooka / Kosuke Uetake / Naoki Wakamori / Yasutora Watanabe
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Accounting Fraud
Our experts, who also serve as advisors to major accounting firms, keep our consultation services in accounting highly professional. We use state-of-the-art methods to support clients in internal investigations as well as litigation that pertains to accounting fraud and other related matters. Our experts, who have significant academic credentials, are also qualified to submit expert opinions in court. In addition, our experts have developed prediction models that use machine learning to detect accounting fraud, some of which are patented.Experts
Atsuko Izumi / Kohei Kawaguchi / Kensuke Kubo / Daisuke Miyakawa / Takeshi Murooka / Akinobu Shuto / Kosuke Uetake / Naoki Wakamori / Yasutora Watanabe
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Data Products
UTEcon creates highly value-added data products from database that companies own.Major Clients
Database companies
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Microdata-based Macroeconomic Nowcasting
We use micro (Big) data such as POS data, text data, and satellite data to provide products that “nowcast” GDP, price levels, consumption, and other macroeconomic variables that can be used by government agencies, central banks, and institutional investors to understand the current state of the economy. Our nowcasting services include dynamic factor models that can provide forecasts at high frequencies, such as daily and weekly.Experts
Keiichi Gojima / Daisuke Miyakawa / Taisuke Nakata / Mototsugu Shintani / Tsutomu Watanabe / Toshihiko Yamasaki
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Machine Learning-based Prediction of Bankruptcy and Accounting Fraud
Our experts have extensive experience in predicting bankruptcy and accounting fraud with financial data for both large and small-and-medium-sized enterprises. We apply machine learning to predict the probability of bankruptcy not only from financial and other firm-specific attributes but also from financial shocks that transaction networks transmit. Similar methods are applied to predict accounting fraud. Our experts have a number of patents on their methods of predicting bankruptcy and accounting fraud, and they work closely with credit agencies and the Big Four accounting firms. In addition, our experts assist clients with internal investigations and litigation that pertain to accounting fraud by conducting empirical analyses.Experts
Norio Kitagawa / Daisuke Miyakawa / Masahiro Shibata / Akinobu Shuto / Miho Takizawa / Takehisa Yairi
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Others
Major Clients
Private and public organizations
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Research and Dataset Design
We support clients to design surveys to construct panel datasets that comprise the preparation of detailed questionnaires with taking account into response rates, attrition rates, and the representativeness of the target population. We provide our clients with data-cleaning services as well as the actual analysis of the survey data. Our experts have experience in the design and management of nationally representative panel datasets.Experts
Daiji Kawaguchi / Yasutora Watanabe/ Shintaro Yamaguchi
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Macroeconomics and Monetary Policies
We offer advice and training for the construction of statistical models for macroeconomic analyses. Our experts have extensive experience dealing with monetary policy in both research and practice. We advise clients on monetary policy by drawing from our deep knowledge of the macroeconomic models used by central banks as well as the latest theoretical and empirical research.Experts
Keiichi Gojima / Taisuke Nakata / Mototsugu Shintani / Tsutomu Watanabe
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