The aim of this paper is to supply both a description and an interpretation-key of the recent developments in the Austrian Economics, with particular attention for the role played by the concept of «entrepreneurial discovery». Without knowing exactly «what» he is looking for and without...

In the last few years, a number of scholars has referred to the crop of contributions of Hyman P. Minsky as required readings to understanding the tendency of the capitalist economies to fall into recurring crises. The so-called ‘financial instability hypothesis’ of Minsky relies, however,...

In the last few years, a number of scholars has referred to the crop of contributions of Hyman P. Minsky as required readings to understanding the tendency of the capitalist economies to fall into recurring crises. The so-called ‘financial instability hypothesis’ of Minsky relies, however,...

In the last few years, many financial analysts and heterodox economists (but even some ‘dissenters’ among orthodox economists) have referred to the contribution of Hyman P. Minsky as fundamental to understanding the current crisis. However, it is well-known that the traditional formulation...

The aim of this paper is to supply both a description and an interpretation-key of the recent developments in the Austrian Economics, with particular attention for the role played by the concept of «entrepreneurial discovery». Without knowing exactly «what» he is looking for and without...

The aim of this paper is to describe by means of a simple Lotka-Volterra model the financial vulnerability of corporate sector. This should allow us to soften Lavoie's criticism of Minsky's «Financial Instability Hypothesis» which is based on the so-called «paradox of debt».

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...