Economics and Business

The Financial Instability Hypothesis-FIH explains the endogenous creation of the business cycle by considering how the economic units contribute to the capital development, and the debt impact. The FIH is a powerful model to describe how financial markets become unstable, also in the absence of an exogenous shock. We consider the availability of hedging tools for firms, (i.e. options), which should positively influence their cash and interest payments (i.e. savings). First empirical evidence on the American economy shows that the hypotheses put forward can be satisfied over tranquil periods of financial markets. On the contrary, if markets become unstable, derivatives contribute to instability and the only solution is the one put forward originally by Minsky: the Government intervention.

The financial and risk management are integral parts of public debt management, and are common in Western countries; the use of innovative financial securities for these purposes, such as interest rate swaps, forces sovereign states to behave in a more credible way, from a financial point of view, and moves toward a greater degree of transparency of accounting rules. The Governmental Accounting Standard Board (GASB) project to improve the transparency of present accounting rules for these innovative securities goes in the direction of introducing proper risk management and better market procedures, in order to increase financial stability in the interest of all market players.

Money demand is an economic theme, which has fascinated economists over the centuries and no unique result has been ever reached. Money de-mand, and money allocation in portfolio depend on the definition of money and wealth and on the possible combinations, ...

Es sumamente importante entender y predecir el crecimiento de grano en aceros. El método Monte Carlo ha sido usado en simulaciones por computadora en varios campos diferentes del conocimiento. La simulación del crecimiento de grano usando este método es especialmente atractiva ya que se reproduce adecuadamente el comportamiento estadístico de los átomos la evolución microestructural no utiliza simplificaciones geométricas. Se llevó a cabo la simulación del crecimiento de grano de una aleación monofásica calculando la energía libre de cada "átomo" en la red (con su orientación cristalográfica actual) y comparando ese valor con otro calculado con una orientación random diferente. Cuando la energía libre resultante es menor o igual al valor inicial, la nueva orientación reemplaza la previa. La medición del tiempo es en Paso Monte Carlo (MCS), que involucra una serie de intentos a través de la red.

Il sistema bancario e finanziario italiano utilizza l’innovazione per modificare la propria struttura e per cogliere nuove occasioni di profittabilità e di miglioramento della performance. Le banche italiane, sottoposte ad una crescente pressione concorrenziale a causa delle mutate condizioni di mercato domestico ed europeo, hanno risposto alla sfida dell’ICT (Information and Communication Technology) utilizzando l’innovazione sia per il back office

The wave toward regulation of derivatives should go further and financial deregulation should not proceed, as it lies at the roots of the subprime crisis. The necessity to regulate global derivatives is a key point of the agenda of the G20 meeting in November 2008.

The role of the Group of Eight (G8) is that of international coordination, not of imposing rules on participants. Its consultative nature, however, does not preclude the improvement of mutual rules and the functioning of the market. An international challenge G8 countries are compelled to face is that of reserve currencies (i.e. the US dollar and the euro according to the official BIS statistics), with a flexible exchange rate between them, along with an emerging currency (the yuan-renminbi) pegged to the dollar and some currencies with a dirty exchange rate regime. The result is that global competition is distorted by “artificial” foreign values of national currencies, which permit an accumulation of an enormous current account surplus and a consequent stockpiling of foreign exchange reserves. The use of these reserves for gaining political influence transfers the problem from the area of geo-economics to that of geopolitics, forcing the G8 to figure out a solution. The progressive...

After the subprime credit crisis of 2007, the world is no longer what we thought. An unprecedented crisis of confidence was combined with a credit crunch, and the G20 countries had to enact massive public spending programmes to save the economy and at least buffer the inevitable hard landing. In 2010 this excessive public spending produced the first public debt crisis in the wake of the subprime crisis: Greece reported that in 2009 it had run an unprecedented deficit of 15.4 per cent of GDP, and that its public debt had skyrocketed to 126.8 per cent. The Greek crisis is the product of years of recession, the sluggish economic environment and poor productivity – but above all it is the product of the mismanagement of the public finances and of unsatisfactory reporting practices. In this essay we analyse this crisis in the context of the era of financial derivatives and underscore a number of crucial effects that have been largely ignored in both academic discussion and public debate.

The massive use of derivatives and securitisation by sovereign States for public debt and deficit management is a growing phenomenon in financial markets. Financial innovation can modify risks effectively run and alter the stability of the public sector finance. The experience of some developed and developing countries is surveyed to look at main instruments used and aims of public finance. Financial stability of the public sector is analysed considering financial innovation use. The case of Italy and its scarce disclosure of information are presented. An IS-LM model is used to capture the effect of financial innovation on fiscal policy for high indebted (European) industrialised countries, with deficit constraints, starting from Blanchard (1981). The use of financial innovation can have various effects over debt and deficit management, given binding external burden (like the European criteria) as far as risks are properly considered, expectations of fiscal policy are coherent with ...

This paper reviews the economic literature on the role of fees in patent systems. Two main research questions are usually addressed: the impact of patent fees on the behavior of applicants and the question of optimal fees. Studies in the former group confirm that a range of fees affect the behavior of applicants and suggest that a patent is an inelastic good. Studies in the latter group provide grounds for both low and high application (or pre-grant) fees and renewal (or post-grant) fees, depending on the structural context and on the policy objectives. The paper also presents new stylized facts on patent fees of thirty patent offices worldwide. It is shown that application fees are generally lower than renewal fees, and renewal fees increase more than proportionally with patent age (to the notable exception of Switzerland and the U.S.).

La New Economy è un fenomeno che ha impresso una spinta verso l’utilizzo massiccio delle nuove tecnologie al livello mondiale nell’attività economica; l’Italia sta ponendosi sul sentiero dell’innovazione, anche se negli ultimi tre anni gli investimenti hanno inevitabilmente rallentato, a causa dell’avversa congiuntura economica. L’innovazione tecnologica impatta sull’attività bancaria sia dal lato dell’offerta di servizi alla clientela, sia dal lato della domanda da parte della clientela. Il sistema bancario italiano sta utilizzando l’innovazione per modificare la propria struttura e per cogliere nuove occasioni di profittabilità e di miglioramento della performance. La recente letteratura ha evidenziato come i grandi gruppi bancari, in grado di sostenere ingenti investimenti, possano offrire servizi innovativi alla clientela, ma questo può avvenire attraverso la creazione della rete per la distribuzione del servizio, oppure con l’acquisizione/fusione con una banca online pre-esiste...

1. The close economic ties between Europe and the United States and the City of London's crucial global monetary and financial role were the conduits for the lightning- fast spread of the crisis triggered by the subprime mortgage defaults in the U.S. and the consequent fall in global real aggregate demand. The effects of this twofold crisis have differed among euro area countries, among non-euro EU countries, and among such neighboring non-members as Turkey and Russia. The differences actually appear to have been sharpest in the euro group. It is well known that the euro area is not an "optimal currency area," and the consequences of this condition are manifold. Banking and financial arrangements remain differentiated within the euro area, and supervisory authorities differ in vigor and efficacy. Some analysts hold that certain countries, Italy among them, lack a truly modern financial system, which is why their banking and securities markets have been less exposed to ...

The access by Sovereign States to financial markets in order to raise funds as a result of increasing debt poses challenging issues, with respect to the use of financial innovation, like financial derivatives, which circumvent traditional accounting rules and standards.

OTC derivatives had a clear role in spreading out volatility and risks in the recent crisis. While the broad approach to reform taken by G-20 countries to achieve financial stability is sound, what has been neglected so far, however, is the role played by non-financial operators and the low degree in international coordination on new financial regulation. Non-financial operators trading of OTC derivatives does not often take place under the new regulatory umbrella, either because of the relative size (i.e. below the minimum threshold) or because of the lack of capital requirements. This lowers the incentives to clear centrally, increases counterparty risks and reduces financial stability. The low degree in international coordination on new financial regulation further decreases the ability to deal with unexpected events.

The European Central Bank and the national central banks together constitute the Eurosystem, the central banking system of the euro area. The main objective of the Eurosystem is to maintain price stability: safeguarding the value of the euro. Since 1 January 1999 the European Central Bank (ECB) has been responsible for conducting monetary policy for the euro area and manages the euro circulation.