In this paper, I develop a three-sector model that is able to fully explain the postwar structural transformation process experienced by the United States from 1950 to 2005. The model have multiple consumption goods which are produced using dierent factor intensities. The closed economy version...

A striking feature of the structural change literature is that, even though the U.S. economy is often used as a benchmark for calibration, the traditional model cannot account for the steep decline in manufacturing and rise in services in the United States since early 1980s (Buera and Kaboski,...

A key feature of economic growth is the inevitable structural change across sectors: the agriculture sector shrinks, the service sector rises, and the manufacturing sector performs a hump-shaped pattern. In addition, empirical observations reveal that the historical investment rates in today's...

A striking feature of the structural change literature is that, even though the U.S. economy is often used as a benchmark for calibration, the traditional models cannot account for the steep decline in manufacturing and rise in services in the United States since the late 1970s (Buera et al.,...

In explaining economic phenomena, economic analysis concentrates on selected influences and fixes the host of other factors under a ceteris paribus clause. This view, which goes back to Alfred Marshall (1842-1924), is developed in the first part of the book. Aggregation is viewed as a particular...

Life annuities provide a guaranteed income for the remainder of the recipient’s lifetime, and therefore, annuitization presents an important option when choosing an adequate investment strategy for the retirement ages. While there are numerous research articles studying annuities from a...

Even 50 years after Modigliani/Miller’s irrelevance theorem, the basic question of how firms choose their capital structure remains unclear. This survey paper aims at summarizing and discussing corresponding recent developments in empirical capital structure research, which, in our view, are...

There has been a wide-spread misconception based on the imprecise wording of Art. 52 of the European Patent Convention (EPC) that the protection of business methods by patents is prohibited in Europe. This paper investigates the legal framework set by patent laws with respect to the...

Ein Großteil der Neugründungen in Deutschland ist auf staatliche Förderung von Existenzgründern zurückzuführen. Dieser Anteil hat sich nach Einführung des als „Ich-AG“ bekannten Existenzgründungszuschusses Anfang 2003 stark erhöht. Die Erfolgsfaktorenforschung hat diese Form von...

In 2003, Swiss Re introduced a mortality-based security designed to hedge excessive mortality changes for its life book of business. The concern was apparently brevity risk, i.e., the risk of premature death. The brevity risk due to a pandemic is similar to the property risk associated with...