Makoto Nirei is Professor of macroeconomics at University of Tokyo. He received B.A. from the University of Tokyo and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He was previously affiliated at Santa Fe Institute, Utah State University, Carleton University and Hitotsubashi University, and served as Chief Economist at Policy Research Institute at Ministry of Finance, Japan. His current research focuses on the aggregate fluctuations of investment, price level and asset price, and on the distributions of household income and wealth.