The logical derivation of the two-factors model (The CAPM) is not empirically testable. This has paved the way for new treatments of asset pricing. However, the deterministic approach taken by most economists has prevented them to create a more useful treatment to the problems of asset pricing...

Munkirs’ notions of Centralized Private Sector Planning and its derivations are very useful in order to give an alternative explanation to the most recent economic crisis. The crisis is the result of the clashes between the old CPSP and a new one based on recently created technology and...

De Moivre’s book “The Doctrine of Chances” (2) is thorough account of what was known about probability and annuities. The proof that is the object of this paper is included in the very last pages of the book (pages 235-243). The aim of the present paper is to explicate De Moivre’s first...

According to Katz [6] some of the basic notions of probability existed in ancient civilizations. In The Talmud and in Roman calculations of annuities there is some evidence of this. However, no record of numerical probability calculations exists. Hald [5], Bernstein [1] and Katz [6] agree that...

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...