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

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 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.     

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.     

Book reviews

Working with Developers in Urban Renewal

Francis Terry (Ed.). Public Finance Foundation London (1989). Discussion Paper 26, 78 pp. £10.00. ISBN 0 85299 445 1.

Councils in Conflict

S. Lansley, S. Goss and C. Wolmar. Macmillan, London (1989). x + 216 pp. £8.99. ISBN 0 333 454 138.

The Future of Housing Allowances

J. Hills, R. Berthoud and P. Kemp. Policy Studies Institute (1989). 71 pp. £5.95. ISBN 0 85374 461 0.     

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 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.     

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.     

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.     

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).     

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     

Contribution to the study of grouped observation. II. Loss of information caused by grouping of normally distributed observations

Abstract

1. Introduction

(a) Maximum Likelihood.—In a previous paper (THIS JOURNAL, vol. XXXII, 1949, pp. 135–159) the author gave tables of the functions and where ?(x) denotes the normal law of distribution, φ(x) its integral and ?′(x) its first derivative. With the aid of these tables it is practicable to solve the maximum likelihood equations for coarsely grouped normal observations. The procedure was illustrated by examples.     

Eksamen i Forsikringsvidenskab og Statistik ved Københavns Universitet

abstract

Ved et Sporvognsstoppested pas serer Linje 1 hvert 6. Minut, Linje 15 hvert 7 ½ Minut; mellem de to Linjers Afgangstider antages der ikke at bestaa nogen Forbindelse. Find Sandsynligheden for:

1^p0. At en tilfældig Passager maa vente kortere paa Linje 1 end paa Linje 15.

2^p0. At han højst maa vente 2 Minutter for at komme med en af de to Linjer.     

Aktuarembetseksamen ved Universitetet i Oslo

Abstract

Finn koeffisientene i rekkeutviklingen av f(x) efter potensene av x. Bevis Taylors formel og bruk den til å diskutere utviklingens gyldighet.     

Pricing variance and volatility swaps in a stochastic volatility model with regime switching: discrete observations case

This study presents a set of closed-form exact solutions for pricing discretely sampled variance swaps and volatility swaps, based on the Heston stochastic volatility model with regime switching. In comparison with all the previous studies in the literature, this research, which obtains closed-form exact solutions for variance and volatility swaps with discrete sampling times, serves several purposes. (1) It verifies the degree of validity of Elliott et al.'s [Appl. Math. Finance, 2007, 14(1), 41–62] continuous-sampling-time approximation for variance and volatility swaps of relatively short sampling periods. (2) It examines the effect of ignoring regime switching on pricing variance and volatility swaps. (3) It contributes to bridging the gap between Zhu and Lian's [Math. Finance, 2011, 21(2), 233–256] approach and Elliott et al.'s framework. (4) Finally, it presents a semi-Monte-Carlo simulation for the pricing of other important realized variance based derivatives.     

An Anatomy of an IFRIC Interpretation

Abstract

This article provides an anatomy of an International Financial Reporting Interpretation Committee (IFRIC) Interpretation. That is, it describes the IFRIC's current operating procedures. It also describes the IFRIC's outputs from its inception in March 2002 to March 2007. During this period the IFRIC produced 14 Final Interpretations, 20 Draft interpretations and 120 “rejection notices” (i.e., issues that were considered by IFRIC but not included on the agenda). Reasons for the agenda rejections are summarized in the paper.     

Le XIImecongrès international d'actuaires

Abstract

We study the following inverse thinning problem for renewal processes: for which completely monotone functions f is f/(p+qf), 0?p?1, q=1-p, completely monotone? A characterisation of such f's is given. We also study the case when f comes from a gamma distribution, and present some ideas for more general results.

The intention of this note is to add some information to a paper by Yannaros (1985), in which thinned renewal processes are considered. Let X_n , n?1, be i.i.d. non-negative random variables, distributed according to a probability measure µ, and let S_n = X ₁+...+X_n (with S ₀=0) be the corresponding renewal process. Replacing µ by the probability measure ν=∑_n?1 pq^n-1 µ^n* (µ^n* =µ* ... µ*, n times) we get a new renewal process, obtained from the original one by independently at each stage preserving the process with probability p. Here and below q= 1-p, and to avoid trivialities we assume that 0 Let µ^(s) = ∫[0,∞) exp (-sx)µ(dx) , s?0, denote the Laplace transform of µ. Then ν^=pµ/(1-µ^). We will study the inverse problem: given a completely monotone function ψ, when does ψ(p+qψ) define a completely monotone function. A complete characterisation, and some of its consequences, is given in §§ 1–3 below. In §§ 4–5 we study the gamma distribution. It is proved that the inverse problem has a negative solution when the parameter a > 1, i.e. 1/(p + q(1 + s) ^a ) is not completely monotone then. In Yannaros (1985) this was proved for a=2, 3, ... with entirely different methods. (That 1/(p+q(1+s)^a is completely monotone for 0?a?1 is easily seen; cf. Yannaros (1985). Finally, in § 6 we give some suggestions to more general results related to thinning. Perhaps the most interesting problem is to find sufficiently general conditions for an absolutely monotone function to have a Bernstein function as its inverse.     

International accounting books: Publishers' dream,authors' nightmare and educators' reality

Abstract

The emergence of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as the required convention for reporting to stock exchanges in the European Union (EU) and other important markets, together with the convergence programmes of major standard setters, has accelerated the reduction in differences in financial reporting between countries. The education of potential accountants would be expected to respond to these changes and, indeed, there is evidence that the teaching of accounting techniques now frequently draws on both IFRS and local GAAP. Perhaps a greater shift has been in the discipline of International Accounting (IA), which has moved from being an optional subject to being core to most programmes and an increasingly popular choice for more specialised degrees at both undergraduate and Master's levels. This article surveys the books that are available to support educators and learners in IA building on the analysis and classification of Laidler and Pallett (1998) Laidler, J. and Pallett, S. 1998. International accounting: a review of books available to support UK courses: a teaching note. Accounting Education: an International Journal, 7(1): 75–86. [Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar] Accounting Education: an international journal, 7(1), pp. 75–86. A range of IA textbooks is examined in detail, along with a more general review of reference works. The analysis finds that there has been a growth in the number, breadth and depth of texts serving the IA market. Authors have fallen upon a number of devices in their battle to keep their materials up to date in this dynamic environment. Some of Laidler and Pallett's (1998) Laidler, J. and Pallett, S. 1998. International accounting: a review of books available to support UK courses: a teaching note. Accounting Education: an International Journal, 7(1): 75–86. [Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar] criticisms of the writing and coverage of IA texts have been addressed, although not necessarily in the way that they envisaged. In spite of the growth of this section of publishers' catalogues, there remain a number of areas given scant coverage, notably enforcement and audit, and countries outside of the EU and US. The article concludes with recommendations for publishers, authors and educators to enhance the teaching of IA and the resources needed to support it.     

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.