Alice Nakamura

In 2012, Alice Nakamura collaborated with some colleagues from the University of Alberta to assess data produced by Statistics Canada.

Together with Michael Harper and Lu Zhang, Alice Nakamura investigates why Canada’s Mutlifactor Productivity Index (MPF) which is estimated by Statistics Canada was lower in 2011 than in 1977 (94.8 and 97.6 respectively) although many policies were introduced to improve Canada’s productivity. Together with other economists, Nakamura argues that the MPF estimated by Statistics Canada is reflective of the nations’ actual productivity. They contend that Statistics Canada use fragile sources to calculate the MPF where small over or understatements lead to irregularities in the measurement.

Today, she is best known for her focus on labour economics, quality management, official statistics, and genomic statistics. She also focuses much of her research on productivity and price measurement, employment, employment earnings and compensation policies as well as social policies and taxation, economic methodology and microanalytic simulation. Some of her most recent works include "Sourcing Substitution and Related Price Index Biases" wherein she alongside Erwin Diewert, John Greenlees, Leonard Nakamura and Marshall Reinsdorf explains how price indexes have become increasingly biased in business settings, "The impact of upstream firms' waste output on downstream firms' performance in Japan" wherein she (alongside Hitoshi Hayami and Masao Nakamura) uses input-output analysis to determine levels of waste materials of the Japanese manufacturing industries, and "Building the Innovation Union: Lessons from the 2008 Financial Crisis" wherein Nakamura (with Leonard Nakamura and Masao Nakamura) uses examples from the Great Depression and the 2008 Financial Crisis to argue that it is necessary to extend the EU efforts of innovation for tangible goods to innovation for processes and regulatory processes.

Together with her daughter Emi Nakamura, and Leonard Nakamura, Alice Nakamura examined price dynamics in retail chains and inflation measurement in the United States. They examined weekly price changes in hundreds of grocery stores. This work is particularly unique because it includes such a large data set, reaching tens of millions observations every year from 2001 to 2005.

They use the MGI (McKinsey Global Institute) report which indicates that within the merchandise sector, Wal-Mart contributed to around a third of the productivity improvement between 1987–95 and that Wal-Mart stands out because of its high productivity which puts it far ahead of its competitors. However they also criticise the MGI's ability to accurately measure productivity because the only product for which measurements were taken from was pharmaceuticals wholesaling.

Alice Nakamura obtained her Bachelor of Science in Economics with a minor in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1973. She pursued her Ph.D. in Economics with a doctoral minor in Sociology from Johns Hopkins University in 1973.

After World War 2 there were a number of economic protests throughout Japan, but the economy fully recovered by 1960, and flourished until 1990. Since 1990, Japan has been in a long recession, characterised by its inability to redirect capital towards increasing productivity and high unemployment rates. Therefore, it has been difficult for Japan to compete with US and European firms, who through trade agreements such as NAFTA and the EU have gained the comparative advantage in the production of many goods.

Alice Orcutt Nakamura (born 1945) is an American-Canadian economist and writer. She is a fellow of the Canadian Economics Association, which is the highest honour of the association. She is currently a professor of finance and management science at the University of Alberta where she has taught since 1972. Alice Nakamura was also the first female president of the Canadian Economics Association in 1994–1995. She was also the president of the International Association for Research on Income and Wealth from 2014 to 2016.