Automating Partial Period Bond Valuation With Excels Day Counting Functions
An Excel model for calculating the actual price of bonds under a 30 day/month, 360 day/year day counting assumption by nesting the DAYS360 function within the PV function is developed. When programmed into an Excel spreadsheet, the model can accommodate annual and semiannual payment bonds sold on or between interest dates using six fundamental inputs, including the bond’s par value, maturity date, annual stated rate of interest, and payment frequency, the annual market rate of interest, and the settlement date. Thus, the model can be applied across the business curriculum in a variety of introductory and more advanced level courses.
Accounting for Bonds With Accrued Interest in Conformity With Brokers' Valuation Formulas
This article explains how to apply brokers' valuation methods to accounting for bonds when interest payments do not coincide with settlement or balance sheet dates. We show how to calculate a bond's present value on these dates using a simple approach that conforms with the method used by brokerage institutions to compute the bond's “actual price.” We then clarify how a broker subtracts accrued interest from this actual price to arrive at the quoted price, and how this quoted price relates to the bond's carrying amount and “fair value” (per SFAS Nos. 107, 115 and 124). We also precisely compute the change in a bond's carrying amount over fractional periods after settlement and around balance sheet dates. Finally, we demonstrate how to integrate these refinements into intermediate textbook illustrations. Throughout, we provide instructions for computing bond valuations using spreadsheet application functions.
Comparative Industrial Sociology and the Convergence Hypothesis
Industrial sociology grew spectacularly after World War II, concentrating on three areas: workers' relations with each other, their managers, and their unions; the social organization of the factory; and the impact of technology on social systems extending from the factory to the society. Unable to sus­ tain leadership in all of these areas, industrial sociology shrivelled as other fields invaded its domains. Human relations became the ideological property of the business schools; labor economics maintained its grip on industrial relations; industry-community relations waned as interest in community power soared; industrial organizations were absorbed into the study of com­ plex organizations; occupational sociology maintained research impetus in labor force analysis; and the sociology of the economy dominated the study of industry's institutional relationships. Industrial sociology survived on remnants: worker-machine relationships (job satisfaction, alienation, un­ employment), organizational responses to technological changes. and a bit of working-class ethnology. Enduring interest in technology, however, en­ abled industrial sociology to take part in sociology's expanding interest in comparative studies.