Finance, Investment and Economic Fluctuations: An Analysis in the Tradition of Hyman P. Minsky

In light of recent outbreaks of financial instability, Nasica (economics, U. of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, France) offers a tribute to the work of Minsky (d. 1996), who was best known for his financial fragility hypothesis. He also examines more recent models of financial instability, based on dynamic non-linear systems and asymmetric information, but finds that they are unable to account adequately for the behavior of agents in situations of uncertainty and for the role of institutions in the unfolding of fluctuations. Finally, he compares fluctuations and finds that they have a similar approach to uncertainty and macroeconomic instability. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)