This 1997 review in the Times Literary Supplement (London) conjoins two books - the first, by investment banker turned finance historian Peter L. Berstein, is a history of the idea of risk, as it developed from Renaissance times through contemporary finance. The second, by the former editor of...

The central claim of this Article is that, as a descriptive matter, trademark legislation and court interpretation is a close normative match with the Chicago School approach of scholars such as Robert Bork and Richard Posner. The organizing intellectual structure of modern trademark law, as...

Upon leaving Tuscany to become Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold II left some notes (1790) that prove very interesting to today's economist. They show how a holistic approach to the socio-economic characteristics of a region should always be considered, starting from a people's spirit, or...

French Abstract: Tout paiement d'intérêt sur un prêt a toujours été condamné comme de l'usure dans le Christianisme et dans l'Islam. Cette condamnation fut imposée par ces deux religions de par leur autorité, sans justification aucune. Malgré tout, elle a inspiré théologiens et...

Italian Abstract: Dopo aver lasciato la Toscana per diventare imperatore del Sacro Romano Impero, Leopoldo lasciò alcuni appunti (1790) che si rivelarono molto interessanti per l'economista di oggi. Mostrano come dovrebbe essere sempre considerato un approccio olistico alle caratteristiche...

The article describes the evolution of accounting from the simple registration­ technique to economic and social institution in medieval Italy. We used methods of institutional analysis and historical research. It is shown that the institutionalization­ of accounting had been completed by the...

For almost a century, the famous C-K paradigm (formally known as Classics – Keynesian Paradigm) has been the apex of economic debate and research. The paradigm represents two schools of thoughts which, somehow, have prevailed till now. Economists who believe in either of the two schools have...

The article shows that mainstream economics, which now includes such current as new institutional economics, is the result of an evolution shaped by three institutions (capitalism, university and mathematics) by imposing to the profession of economists their founding beliefs. These beliefs are:...

Lex mercatoria or Law Merchant (‘LM’) is said to be the self-made law of international commerce. According to its proponents, LM is an autonomous legal order that not only supplements state commercial law, but works as a substitute for it. The ‘ancient’ LM, which accompanied the...