The European Patent System is facing major challenges resulting from an extension of patentable subject matter leading to an increasing number of patent applications. The European Patent Office has responded with admirable flexibility, but continuing technological change and greater importance...

While the determinants of firms’ optimal hedging strategies on the micro level are well understood, there is rarely any literature dealing with macroeconomic consequences of microeconomic risk management. This book is concerned with the impact of diverse hedging policies on macroeconomic...