Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Issues in Public-Utility Pricing and Regulation. Edited by MICHAEL A. CREW. Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath and Company, 1980. Pp. x + 225. The Economic Effects on Lessees of FASB Statement No. 13, Accounting for Leases. By A. RASHAD ABDEL-KHALIK et al. Stamford, Conn.: Financial Accounting Standards Board, 1981. Fundamentals of Managerial Finance. By RAYMOND P. NEVEU. Cincinnati: South-Western Publishing Co., 1981. Pp. viii + 552. The Property Tax Revolt: The Case of Proposition 13. Edited by GEORGE G. KAUFMAN and KENNETH T. ROSEN. Cambridge: Ballinger Publishing Company, 1981. Pp. 232 + xviii. Finance: A Conceptual Approach. By NAHUM BIGER. Toronto: Butterworths, 1981. Monetary Theory. By Laurence Harris. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Economics Handbook Series, 1981. Pp. xiii + 481.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Financial Statement Analysis. By GEORGE FOSTER. Englewood Cliffs Problem and Failed Institutions in the Commerical Banking Industry. By JOSEPH F. SINKEY, JR. The Dow Jones-Irwin Guide to Modern Portfolio Theory. By ROBERT HAGIN. Forecasting: An Appraisal for Policy-Makers and Planners. By W. ASCHER. The Basic Theory of Corporate Finance. By KENNETH J. BOUDREAUX AND HUGH W. LONG. Englewood Cliffs The Investment Decisions of Firms. By STEPHEN J. NICKELL. Financing Black Economic Development. By TIMOTHY BATES AND WILLIAM BRADFORD Financial Management: An Introduction. By STEPHEN H. ARCHER, G. MARC CHOATE, AND GEORGE RACETTE.     

Book Reviews

This paper describes and explains the use of political risk assessment techniques in Jordanian multinational corporations (MNCs). A multi‐method approach to collect data was followed. A self‐report questionnaire was delivered by hand to the general managers of all Jordanian MNCs which were identified as operating internationally. Semi‐structured interviews were used as a means of elaborating on the findings from the questionnaire. The study identified the extensive use of heuristic political risk assessment techniques (due to their flexibility, simplicity and low cost). Scientific techniques, on the other hand, were used by only a minority of MNCs. As has been the case in earlier studies, flexibility, simplicity and cost considerations were all found to be influential in this regard. However, the study also found that key decision‐makers in Jordanian MNCs believe that official data are subject to censorship and are therefore not reliable. This undermines the efficiency of using highly sophisticated scientific techniques. Since there are a number of other countries in the Middle East – and elsewhere – in which these considerations also apply, this finding has important implications for international businesses which operate in these countries, whatever their home country.     

Book Reviews

Keith Cuthbertson, Quantitative Financial Economics: Stocks, Bonds and Foreign Exchange
Salih N. Neftci, An Introduction to the Mathematics of Financial Derivatives     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Firms, Contracts and Financial Structures. By OLIVER HART. Active Portfolio Management. By RICHARD C. GRINOLD and RONALD N. KAHN. Finance, Investment and Macroeconomics: The Neoclassical and a Post Keynesian Solution. By MYRON J. GORDON. Financial Securities: Market Equilibrium and Pricing Methods. By BERNARD DUMAS and BLAISE ALLAZ. Banking Reform in Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union, JACEK ROSTOWSKI