Charles Horioka

Biographical Overview & Key Facts

Subject:

Charles Horioka

Role / Field:

Japanese-American economist specializing in macroeconomics, household finance, and Asian economies.

Born:

1956-09-07

Century / Era:

1956s Historical Era

Database Source:

2Day Chrono-Wiki & Wikipedia CC BY-SA 4.0

Origins & Early Life

Charles Yuji Horioka (born September 7, 1956, in Boston, Massachusetts) is a Japanese-American economist residing in Japan. Horioka received his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University and is currently Research Professor at the Center for Computational Social Science and Research Fellow at the Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan. He is concurrently Distinguished Research Professor and Director at the Asian Growth Research Institute (Kitakyushu City, Japan) and Invited Professor and Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University (Osaka, Japan). Previously, he taught at Stanford, Columbia, Kyoto, and Osaka Universities and the University of the Philippines, Diliman, where he was Vea Family Professor of Technology and Evolutionary Economics Centennial.

Career & Major Achievements

He served as President of the Society of Economics of the Household (SEHO) 2021–23, President of the Japanese Economic Association 2023–24, and President of the International Association for Research on Income and Wealth (IARIW) 2024–26. He served as co-editor of the International Economic Review for 15 years (from 1998 until 2013) and is currently co-editor of the Review of Economics of the Household and associate editor or editorial advisor of many economics journals. He is also a Research Associate and Co-director of the Japan Project of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER, Cambridge, Massachusetts). In his article with Martin Feldstein, "Domestic Saving and International Capital Flows", published in the Economic Journal in 1980, Horioka documented a positive correlation between long-term savings and investment rates across countries.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

This result has come to be known as the Feldstein–Horioka puzzle or paradox and the article is one of the most cited in international finance. His specialties are macroeconomics, household and family economics, the Japanese economy, and the Asian economies, and he has written numerous scholarly articles on consumption, saving, and bequest behavior and parent-child relations in Japan, the United States, China, India, Korea, and Asia more generally. In 2001, Horioka was awarded the Seventh Japanese Economic Association Nakahara Prize (the Japanese equivalent of the John Bates Clark Medal), which is given annually to the most outstanding Japanese economist aged 45 or younger. According to the Research Papers in Economics (RePEc)/IDEAS rankings, he ranks among the top ten economists living in Japan and has about 11,500 Google Scholar citations.

Chronological Milestones & Life Events

1. 1956 (1956-09-07): Birth of Charles Horioka — Japanese-American economist specializing in macroeconomics, household finance, and Asian economies.
2. 1980: 1980 Milestone — In his article with Martin Feldstein, "Domestic Saving and International Capital Flows", published in the Economic Journal in 1980, Horioka documented a positive correlation between long-term savings and investment rates across countries.
3. 1998: 1998 Milestone — He served as co-editor of the International Economic Review for 15 years (from 1998 until 2013) and is currently co-editor of the Review of Economics of the Household and associate editor or editorial advisor of many economics journals.
4. 2001: 2001 Milestone — In 2001, Horioka was awarded the Seventh Japanese Economic Association Nakahara Prize (the Japanese equivalent of the John Bates Clark Medal), which is given annually to the most outstanding Japanese economist aged 45 or younger.
5. 2021: 2021 Milestone — He served as President of the Society of Economics of the Household (SEHO) 2021–23, President of the Japanese Economic Association 2023–24, and President of the International Association for Research on Income and Wealth (IARIW) 2024–26.

Historical Fact-Check Quiz: Charles Horioka

True or False: “The Feldstein–Horioka puzzle suggests a direct positive correlation between long-term national savings rates and investment rates across different countries.”

Answer (TRUE ⭕): This puzzle highlights the observed relationship documented in his 1980 article, which remains a highly cited topic in international finance.

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• Alan Eustace — Historical peer (Born in 1956) (1956): Pioneering computer scientist known for his work at Google and record-breaking space dive.
• Alexander Dovzhenko — Historical peer (Died in 1956) (1956): Pioneering Soviet filmmaker and screenwriter of Ukrainian origin, key to Soviet montage theory.
• Aaron Beck — Historical peer (Died in 2021) (2021): Father of Cognitive Therapy and CBT, revolutionizing psychiatric treatment.
• Abdelaziz Bouteflika — Historical peer (Died in 2021) (2021): Algerian politician who served as the seventh President of Algeria from 1999 to 2019.
• A. S. Byatt — Historical peer (Died in 2023) (2023): Acclaimed English novelist, poet, and critic known for complex literary works.
• 1956 Historical Timeline & Archive — Explore world events and figures from 1956
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Frequently Asked Questions about Charles Horioka