研究と教育：2024年10月21日（月）

最近，少々，鬱（うつ）状態だ。私は29歳の頃に，当時の（社）日本経済研究センターに1年間研修のために出向をさせてもらったことがある。日本経済予測の部門で短期経済予測を担当させていただく機会を得た。２年間研修コースと１年間研修コースの２つのコースがあり，いずれも日本経済研究センターの法人会員となっている企業から研修生として送り込まれてくる。私は1年コースで研修目的で出向させてもらった。

　東京都中央区日本橋茅場町にあった，当時はインテリジェントビルと呼ばれていた日本経済新聞社のビルの一角で，銀行，保険，製造，電機，鉄鋼，石油，電力，ガス，運輸，商社，研究所など多岐にわたる分野の企業からの出向者の若手が，徹夜も厭わぬ勢いで，毎日，経済分析や経済予測の研究と調査作業に取り組んでいた。

　長い間，仕舞い込んであった当時の日本経済研究センターでの経済分析や研究のために書き留めたノートが見つかり，34年ぶりに手に取って内容を覗いてみた。当時，経済企画庁から日本経済研究センターにご出向されて主査を務められていた大守隆先生のご指導をいただき，「トランスログ型生産関数」を用いることによって，資本や労働以外の，エネルギーや輸入原材料等をも組み込んで，それらの要素間の偏代替弾力性，価格弾力性および中立的技術進歩率を計測して，生産への影響を推定する研究のほんの一部分に従事していたが，それらに関するメモ書きのノートや資料が出てきた。その過程で行列式の計算が累々と登場してくる。もちろん，そのなかには，晩年に本学経済学部で教鞭を執られ，鬼籍に入られた和合肇先生の研究論文のコピーもあった。

　これらのノートを見て，こうした内容を今の大学・大学院教育で学生指導に実践しようと思うと，正直に言って，難しい。今から41年前に，佐和隆光先生が執筆された「エネルギー価格変動と潜在GNP」『エネルギー需給の計量分析』経済企画庁経済研究所研究シリーズ，第40号（pp.8-24）もそれらの資料の中にあった。ご指導を頂戴した大学院指導教授には大変申し訳ない気持ちでいっぱいであり，自分の力量不足を思うと，鬱になってきた。

Research and Education: Monday, October 21, 2024

Recently, I’ve been feeling somewhat depressed. When I was 29 years old, I had the opportunity to be seconded for a one-year training program at the Japan Center for Economic Research (then a public interest corporation). During my time there, I was assigned to the Japan Economic Forecasting Department, where I worked on short-term economic forecasts. There were two types of training courses—one for two years and another for one year—and trainees were sent from companies that were corporate members of the Japan Center for Economic Research. I was sent there for the one-year course for training purposes.

At the time, young employees seconded from a wide range of industries—including banking, insurance, manufacturing, electronics, steel, oil, electricity, gas, transportation, trading companies, and research institutes—worked day and night in a corner of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun building in Nihonbashi Kayabacho, Tokyo, which was then known as an intelligent building, conducting research and analysis on the economy and forecasts.

I recently found some notebooks that had been tucked away for a long time, containing notes on the economic analyses and research I did at the Japan Center for Economic Research, and I looked through them for the first time in 34 years. Under the guidance of Professor Takashi Omori, who was then seconded from the Economic Planning Agency and served as chief researcher, I was involved in a small part of a study that used the “translog production function” to incorporate not just capital and labor but also energy and imported raw materials to calculate the elasticity of substitution and price elasticity between these factors, as well as the rate of neutral technological progress, in order to estimate their impact on production. The notebooks and materials that emerged included notes on matrix calculations. Of course, there were also copies of research papers by Professor Hajime Wago, who later taught at our university’s Faculty of Economics and sadly passed away.

Looking at these notebooks now, I honestly find it difficult to imagine applying this content to teaching and supervising students in today’s university and graduate education. Among the materials, I also found a paper written by Professor Takamitsu Sawa 41 years ago, titled “Energy Price Fluctuations and Potential GNP” from Econometric Analysis of Energy Supply and Demand, Research Series No. 40 (pp. 8-24) by the Economic Research Institute of the Economic Planning Agency. Reflecting on my own lack of ability, I feel a deep sense of apology to my graduate school professor who guided me, and thinking about my own inadequacies has led me to feel depressed.