Book reviews

Public Sector Management Norman Flynn. Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead, UK (1990). 201 pp. £9.95. ISBN 0–7450–0594–2.

CIPFA Guide to the Community Charge R. Hale and C. Stewart (Eds). Longman, Harlow, UK (1990). Price £225. ISBN 0–582–063–54X.

Ethics in the British Civil Service Richard A. Chapman. Routledge, London ( 1988). pp. xix + 338. £30.     

Book reviews

Public Debt Management: Theory and History. Edited by Rudiger Dornbusch and Mario Draghi. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1990). xix + 354 pp. £30.00. ISBN 0 521 39266 7.

Understanding the UK Economy Edited by P. Curwen. Macmillan, London (1990). xvii + 359 pp. £35.00. ISBN 0333 51104 2.

Politics and Public Policy in Scotland By Arthur Midwinter, Michael Keating and James Mitchell. Macmillan, London (1991). xii + 240 pp. £9.99. ISBN 0333 52265 6.     

Facts & figures

Financial Management in the NHS: a Manager's Handbook By H. Mellett, N. Marriott, S. Harris (Chapman and Hall, London, 1993), pp. xvii + 265. £29.50. ISBN 0 412 47320 8.

Competing for Quality—a Manager's Guide to Market Testing By Lynton Barker (Longman, Harlow, 1993). £38.50. ISBN 0 582 23688 6.

The Role of Chief Executives in Local Government By Janice Morphet (Longman, Harlow, 1993), pp. vi + 245. £29.95.     

Further reading

On the Dynamics of Growth and Debt By Casper van Ewijk Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1991. viii + 220pp. ISBN 0 19 828346 6.

Hillier, B. (1991), The Macroeconomic Debate: Models of the Closed and Open Economy. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.

Citizens, Consumers and Councils By John Gyford Macmillan, London, 1991. 215pp. Hard cover £35.00, ISBN 0 333 52534 5; paper cover £9.99, ISBN 0 333 52535 3.

Trapped in Poverty ? Labour‐Market Decisions in Low‐Income Households By Bill Jordan, Simon James, Helen Kay and Marcus Redley Routledge, London, 1992. 350 pp. £40.00.

Politics and Policy‐Making in Northern Ireland By Michael Connolly. Philip Allan, Hemel Hempstead, 1990. 178 pp.     

Facts & figures: Health care: Private and public spending,resources, need and provision; Privatisation: A further progress report

Labour Market Policy and Unemployment Insurance Anders Björklund, Robert Haveman, Robinson Hollister and Bertil Holmlund. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 205 pp. £25. 00. ISBN 0 19 828323 7.

Survey of Computer Fraud &; Abuse 1990 Audit Commission, Nicholson House, Lime Kiln Close, Stoke Gifford, Bristol BS12 6SU, UK. £7.50. (A supplement at £9.50 details all the individual cases used in compiling the report.)

Public Sector Financial Management H. M. Coombs and D. E. Jenkins. Chapman &; Hall, London (1991). x + 294 pp. £14.95. ISBN 0 412 38550 3.     

CALL FOR PAPERS

Organized Uncertainty: Designing a World of Risk Management. Michael Power. Oxford University Press, 2007. xviii and 248pp. ISBN 978–0–9–925394–4. £24.99.

Intellectual Capital Reporting: Lessons from Hong Kong and Australia. J. Guthrie, R. Petty and F. Ricceri. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, 2007, vii and 118pp. ISBN 978–1–904574–27–9. £15

The Routledge Companion to Fair Value and Financial Reporting. P. Walton (ed.). Routledge, 2007. xviii and 404 pp. ISBN 978–0–415–42356–4. £95.

UK Reporting of Intellectual Capital. Jeffrey Unerman, James Guthrie and Ludmila Striukova. ICAEW Centre for Business Performance, 2007. 68 pp. ISBN 978 1 84152 507 5. £20.     

Book Reviews

Organized Uncertainty: Designing a World of Risk Management. Michael Power. Oxford University Press, 2007. xviii and 248pp. ISBN 978–0–9–925394–4. £24.99.

Intellectual Capital Reporting: Lessons from Hong Kong and Australia. J. Guthrie, R. Petty and F. Ricceri. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, 2007, vii and 118pp. ISBN 978–1–904574–27–9. £15

The Routledge Companion to Fair Value and Financial Reporting. P. Walton (ed.). Routledge, 2007. xviii and 404 pp. ISBN 978–0–415–42356–4. £95.

UK Reporting of Intellectual Capital. Jeffrey Unerman, James Guthrie and Ludmila Striukova. ICAEW Centre for Business Performance, 2007. 68 pp. ISBN 978 1 84152 507 5. £20.     

Facts & figures: Public sector pay: The last ten years

Next Steps: Improving Management in Government? Edited by Barry J. O'Toole and Grant Jordan (Dartmouth Publishing Company, Aldershot, 1995). £37.50. ISBN 1 855 21491 1.

The Myth of Democratic Failure. By Donald Wittman (University of Chicago Press, Chicago; distributed by John Wiley, Chichester, 1995). £23.95. ISBN 0 226 90422 9.

Managing Change in the New Public Sector. Edited by Roger Lovell (Pearson Professional, Southport, 1995). £32.50. ISBN 0 582 23893 5.     

Book Review

The Routledge Companion to Accounting History. Editors: John Richard Edwards and Stephen P. Walker. Routledge, Taylor &; Francis Group, London and New York. 2008. xvii and 619 pp. ISBN 9780415410946. £125.     

Book review

Evaluating Health and Social Care By C. Phillips, C. Palfrey and P. Thomas (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1994). Hardback £35.00; paperback £11.99. ISBN 0 333 59185 2 (hardback); 0333 59186 0 (paperback).     

Book review

Accounting, Organizations, & Institutions: Essays in Honour of Anthony Hopwood. Christopher S. Chapman, David J. Cooper and Peter B. Miller (Eds.). Oxford University Press, 2009. 441pp. ISBN 978–0–19–954635–0. £60.     

Financial & economic review

Statement by HM Treasury on the 1982 Pay Claim by the Council of Civil Service Unions HM Treasury, London, 1982, free

Budgetary Reform Sixth Report from the Treasury and Civil Service Committee, Session 1981/82, House of Commons Paper 137, HMSO, London, 1982, £10.90

The Roads Programme and the Transport Aspects of the 1982 Public Expenditure White Paper Fourth Report from the Transport Committee, Session 1981/82, House of Commons Paper 334, HMSO, London, 1982, £4.80

Public Expenditure on the Social Services Second Report from the Social Services Committee, Session 1981/82, House of Commons Paper 306–1, Volume I, HMSO, London, 1982, £4.35

Public Expenditure on the Social Services Second Report from the Social Services Committee, Session 1981/82, House of Commons Paper 306–11, Volume II, HMSO, London, 1982, £10.60

Financing of the Nationalised Industries Eighth Report from the Treasury and Civil Service Committee, Session 1980/81, House of Commons Paper 348‐II, HMSO, London, 1981, £9.15

Budgetary Reform Sixth Report from the Treasury and Civil Service Committee, Session 1981/82, House of Commons Paper 137, HMSO, London, 1982, £10.90     

Nils Ekholm

Abstract

The problem of χ² tests of a linear hypothesis H₀ for ‘matched samples’ in attribute data has been discussed earlier by the author (Bennett, 1967, 1968). This note presents corresponding results for the hypothesis that the multinomial probabilities p satisfy (c ?1) functional restrictions: F ₁(p) = 0, ... , F _C?1(p) = 0. An explicit relationship between the usual ‘goodness-of-fit’ χ² and the modified minimum χ² (=χ*²) of Jeffreys (1938) and Neyman (1949) is demonstrated for this situation. An example of the test for the 2 × 2 × 2 contingency table is given and compared with the solution of Bartlett (1935).     

Debate: Local councils' dilemma of planning for uncertainty

The public expenditure implications of PFI projects in Scotland's NHS are substantial. This article compares PFI capital expenditure with projected unitary charges, examines the annual cost of existing PFI schemes and looks at future costs arising from the planned expansion of PFI. Unless the new Scottish National Party-led administration applies the breaks, the annual cost of PFI to Scotland's NHS is to increase almost five-fold, from £107.1 million in 2005/06 to £500 million by the early part of the next decade.     

Holm's probability-paper tests in relation to the Kolmogorov—Smirnov one-sample test

Abstract

In [5] S. Holm proposed teststatistics for testing simple hypotheses by means of the probability paper for distribution functions (d.f.) of the form F ₀(x) = Φ[(x - μ₀)/σ₀], where μ₀ is location parameter, σ₀ scale parameter, and Φ is an absolutely continuous distribution function with Φ(0) = 1/2. If μ₀ and (σ₀ are known, the hypothesis H ₀ is:

• H ₀: H(x) = F ₀(x) = Φ[(x?μ₀)/σ₀],

while the three possible alternatives are

• H ₁: H(x) > F ₀(x)

• H ₂: H(x) < F ₀(x)

• H ₃: H(x) ≠ F ₀(x).

     

One-state variable binomial models for European-/American-style geometric Asian options

Abstract

This paper is concerned with geometric Asian options whose pay-offs depend on the geometric average of the underlying asset prices. Following the Cox et al (1979 J. Financial Economics 7 229-63) arbitrage arguments, we develop one-state variable binomial models for the options on the basis of the idea of Cheuk and Vorst (1997 J. Int. Money Finance 16 173-87). The models are more efficient and faster than those lattice methods (for the options) proposed by Hull and White (1993 J. Derivatives 1 21-31), Ritchken et al (1993 Manage. Sci. 39 1202-13), Barraquand and Pudet (1996 Math. Finance 6 17-51) and Cho and Lee (1997 J. Financial Eng. 6 179-91). We also establish the equivalence of the models and certain difference schemes.     

Book review

Georgina Ferry (2003) A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Teashops and the World's First Office Computer, London: Fourth Estate, pp. xii + 221. £15.99 (hbk), ISBN 1841-15185-8.     

Sur la notion de prime d'épargne

Abstract

Il est bien connu que la réserve mathématique W (t) d'une assurance très générale sur la vie satisfait à une équation différentielle de Thiele, à savoir où l'on a

• δ (t) = le taux instantané ou l'intensité d'intérêt,

• μ (t) = l'intensité de mourir,

• P (t = la prime par unité du temps,

• S (t) = le capital assuré en cas de décès.

     

Indexing government stock: A fund manager's view

Two major changes affecting local authorities in London are scheduled to be implemented in the next couple of years, namely the poll tax and the abolition of the Inner London Education authority. Some inner London authorities will be worse off as a result.