Book Reviews

Gavin W. Jones and Terence H. Hull (eds) (1997), Indonesia Assessment: Population and Human Resources, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, and Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, ANU, Canberra, pp. 373. Cloth S$55.00; US$39.90; A$45.00, paper: S$32.00; US$23.00; A$30.00.

William L. Collier, Kabul Santoso, Soentoro and Rudi Wibowo (1996), Pendekatan Baru dalam Pembangunan Pedesaan di Jawa: Knjian Pedesaan Selama 25 Tahun [A New Approach to Rural Development in Java: 25 Years of Village Studies], Yayasan Obor Indonesia, Jakarta, pp. xxi + 188. Paper: Rp 9,000.

Martin Klapwijk (1997), Rural Industry Clusters in Central Java, Indonesia: An Empirical Assessment of Their Role in Rural Industrialization, Tinbergen Institute Research Series no. 153, Vrije Uruversiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1997, pp. 213.

Chia Siow Yue and Joseph L.H. Tan (eds) (1996), ASEAN in the WTO: Challenges and Responses, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and ASEAN Secretariat, Singapore, pp. xv + 209, S39.90; US$29.90.

Eijkemans, C.H.J.F. (1995), Profitability or Security: Decision-making on Land Use among Toba Batnk Peasants in North Sumatra, Indonesia, Nijmegen Studies in Development and Cultural Change, no. 22, Nijmegen Instituut voor Comparatieve Cultuur- en Ontwikkelingsstudies (NICCOS), Saarbrucken, pp. 241. Cloth: DM 42,-; paper: DM 32,-.     

Book Reviews

Angus Maddison and Gé Prince (eds), Economic Growth in Indonesia 1820–1940, Verhandelingen van het KITLV 137, Dortrecht: Foris Publications, 1989, pp. vii + 300, maps, index.

P. Boomgaard and J.L. van Zanden, Food Crops and Arable Lands, Java 1815–1942. Changing Economy in Indonesia. Volume 10, Amsterdam: Royal Tropical Institute, 1990.

Anne Booth, W.J. O'Malley and Anna Weidemann (eds), Indonesian Economic History in the Dutch Colonial Era, New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, Monograph Series 35, 1990, pp. xiv + 369, Tables, Figures.

Prospek Ekonomi Indonesia 1990–1991 dan Pengembangan Sumber Daya Manusia, Jakarta: Lembaga Penerbit Fakultas Ekonomi, Universitas Indonesia, 1990.

BRIEFLY NOTED: Demetris Papageorgiou, Michael Michaely and Armeane M. Choksi (eds). Liberalizing Foreign Trade: Vol. 5, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Cambridge, Mass.: Basil Blackwell, 1991, pp. xii + 428.     

Real Estate Risk,Corporate Investment and Financing Choice

This paper empirically examines how real estate risk impacts corporate investment and financing decisions. Using a panel of United States firms from 1985 to 2013, we document that real estate risk is negatively associated with firms’ long-term investments and long-term external financing in equity and debt. The results are robust to different risk measurements and in particular salient during the financial crisis period when the endogeneity between risk and investment is less of a concern. The effect on firm leverage, however, depends on risk measures. Overall, in contrast to previously documented positive effects of the real estate value, real estate risk exposure exhibits mostly the opposite effects on investment, financing and capital structure. This difference is consistent with option value determinants. Findings in this paper shed new lights on the impact of real estate holding on corporate decisions, offer a new explanation for the underperformance of hedge funds’ real estate strategies, and confirm the theoretical predictions in Deng et al. (2015).     

The Cross-Section of Stock Returns on The Shanghai Stock Exchange

This study explores the cross-sectional stock return behavior on the A-share market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE), which is segmented from world's other equity markets. We estimate the effects of beta, firm size, book-to-market equity ratio and a variable unique to the Chinese stock markets, the proportion of firm's floating (tradable) equity over total equity on SSE stocks over the period 1993–2002. We find that smaller firms and value stocks perform better. Systematic risk is negatively significant in down markets. The proportion of floating equity has no direct effect on stock returns. JEL Classification: G14, G15     

Asset-Backed Securitization in Singapore: Value of Embedded Buy-Back Options

Asset backed securities have been promoted as an important financing instrument for property developers to raise capital in Singapore. In 1999 alone, S$1.92 billion worth of bonds have been issued via the securitization of six commercial properties and one residential condominium project under construction. Buy-back option is a unique feature embedded in the asset-backed securitization (ABS) in Singapore, which allow the originator to retain a contingent claim on the upside potential of the asset price. Based on the multi-period binomial option pricing framework proposed by Cox et al. (1979), the prices of the options embedded in the ABS contracts are estimated. Using the securitization of the 132,111 square feet 268 Orchard Road office building for illustration, the premium of the options embedded in the 10-year ABS deal was estimated at S$28.47 million, or 15.48 percent of the bond value. Recognition of the value of embedded options is important for structuring a fair and transparent ABS deal.     

Book Reviews

Anne Booth (1998), The Indonesian Economy in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: A History of Missed Opportunities, Macmillan, London, and St Martin's Press, New York, pp. xvi + 377. Paper: US$ 19.95; cloth: US$ 79.95.

J. Thomas Lindblad (1998), Foreign Investment in Southeast Asia in the Twentieth Century, Macmillan, London, and St Martin's Press, New York, pp. xiii + 240. Paper: £49.95.

Adam Schwarz and Jonathan Paris (eds) (1999), The Politics of Post-Suharto Indonesia, Council on Foreign Relations Press, New York, pp. 150. Paper: US$17.95.

Arief Budiman, Barbara Hatley and Darnien Kingsbury (eds) (1999), Reformasi: Crisis and Change in Indonesia, Monash Asia Institute, Melbourne, pp. 402. A$24.95.

Hal Hill (1999), The Indonesian Economy in Crisis: Causes, Consequences and Lessons, Institute of South East Asian Studies, Singapore, pp. 150. S$22.50; US$14.90.

Terry Dwyer (ed.) and Barry Reece and Craig Emerson (contributors) (1999), Resource Tax Policy in Countries of the Asia Pacific Region, Asia Pacific Press, The Australian National University, Canberra. A$20.00; US$20.00.

Januar Achmad (1999), Hollow Development: The Politics of Health in Soeharto's Indonesia, Coombs Academic Publishing, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, pp. viii + 220. A$15.00 plus postage.

Terence H. Hull, Endang Sulistyaningsih and Gavin W. Jones (1999), Prostitution in Indonesia: Its History and Evolution, Pustaka Sinar Harapan, Jakarta, pp. 161. A$10.00.     

Influences of Culture on Transfer Price Negotiation

Luft and Libby (1997) posit that American transfer price negotiators tend to settle on prices that result in smaller differences in profit between divisions than the external market price will dictate. They attribute the results to a fairness effect. While fairness is present in all cultures, what is considered “fair” differs between cultures (Bian & Keller, 1999; Bolton et al., 2009; Gao, 2009; Surowiecki, 2009). This study ascertains whether cultural affiliation of the negotiator impacts this fairness effect. American and Chinese subjects participated in within-culture and cross-cultural negotiations in an experiment modeled after Luft and Libby (1997). Our results confirm Luft and Libby's (1997) fairness effect when American participants negotiate with each other, but illustrate a contrary effect when Chinese participants negotiate with each other. The negotiator's cultural affiliation is found to determine profit distribution in cross-cultural negotiations. These findings are consistent with longstanding theories of cultural traits (Hofstede, 1980) that are relevant to transfer price negotiation activities. Our results imply that the fairness effect in transfer price negotiation may need to be refined to account for the impact of culture.     

Telephone Penetration and Economic Growth in the APEC Region: A Simultaneous Non-Linear GMM Approach

We examine the contributions of the telecommunications infrastructure to economic growth in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies during the period from 1982 to 2003 using a modified version of the model developed by Roller and Waverman (2001). Our estimation results show that, consistent with Roller and Waverman (2001), telecommunication infrastructure has a significant effect on economic growth in the APEC region and that the inclusion of country fixed effects is important for obtaining a more reliable estimate of the growth effect. Moreover, the magnitude of the growth effect is inversely related to the level of telecommunications infrastructure in the APEC economies. While the marginal effect of an increase in telecommunications infrastructure in the APEC region is smaller than that in the OECD countries found in Roller and Waverman (2001), the total contribution of telecommunication infrastructure to economic growth is larger in the former than in the latter.     

A note on value relevance of mark-to-market values of energy contracts under EITF Issue No. 98-10

This paper examines whether marked-to-market values of energy trading assets and liabilities of companies that enter into energy contracts are related to market value of equity. The Emerging Issues Task Force of the Financial Accounting Standards Board ruled in November 2002 to ban the use of mark-to-market accounting for energy contracts out of concern that fair values can be easily inflated. We find that the excess of fair value over original value of energy trading assets and energy trading liabilities is not relevant for valuation. It may be inferred that fair values which are subject to management estimates and not verifiable are poor signals of worth and performance (Watts, R., 2003. Conservatism in accounting Part I: Explanations and implications. Accounting Horizons 17, 207–221).