The Valuation and Investment Merits of Diamonds - (Contributions in Political Science) by Sarkis Khoury (Hardcover)

About the Book

This is the first book which deals with the economics of diamonds, specifically with the determinants of diamond prices. The period of analysis, 1978-1983, was chosen in order to shed light on the dramatic drop in diamond prices. The dominant variables causing this drop were the varying price of gold and fluctuating interest rates. Khoury helps the investor in making long-range decisions about investing in diamonds and deciding on the form the investment should take. He warns of the importance to understand the sensitivities of the market and the factors which must be taken into consideration before commitments to an investment in diamonds are made.

The book includes: a quick review of the characteristics of diamonds, the financial performance of DeBeers in a declining market, the economic structure of the diamond industry, the method for exercising economic control over the diamond market, the economic variables influencing diamond prices, and the modeling of diamond prices and the testing of the model using advanced statistical methods.

Book Synopsis

This is the first book which deals with the economics of diamonds, specifically with the determinants of diamond prices. The period of analysis, 1978-1983, was chosen in order to shed light on the dramatic drop in diamond prices. The dominant variables causing this drop were the varying price of gold and fluctuating interest rates. Khoury helps the investor in making long-range decisions about investing in diamonds and deciding on the form the investment should take. He warns of the importance to understand the sensitivities of the market and the factors which must be taken into consideration before commitments to an investment in diamonds are made.

The book includes: a quick review of the characteristics of diamonds, the financial performance of DeBeers in a declining market, the economic structure of the diamond industry, the method for exercising economic control over the diamond market, the economic variables influencing diamond prices, and the modeling of diamond prices and the testing of the model using advanced statistical methods.

Review Quotes

"Earlier this year Quorum Books published a most thorough and extremely important book entitles The Valuation and Investment Merits of Diamonds written by Professor Sarkis J. Khoury Ph.D., Professor of Fianance at the Graduate School of Management at the University of California at Riverside.... Professor Khoury's book fills a void in the literature on diamond investments. In fact the author recently states to Diamond Insight that.,."..every diamond publication does not carry discussions, deep and serious, about investing in diamonds.....My book is an attempt to redress this." And redress this he does.... In conclusion, Khoury (writing in 1989) expresses concerns over the political unrest in South Africa and the possibility of the Soviets dumping gem-quality diamonds on the world market. Fortunately these concerns have been preempted by the creation of DeBeers Centenary and the Soviet accord of July 25."-Diamond Insight

?Earlier this year Quorum Books published a most thorough and extremely important book entitles The Valuation and Investment Merits of Diamonds written by Professor Sarkis J. Khoury Ph.D., Professor of Fianance at the Graduate School of Management at the University of California at Riverside.... Professor Khoury's book fills a void in the literature on diamond investments. In fact the author recently states to Diamond Insight that.,."..every diamond publication does not carry discussions, deep and serious, about investing in diamonds.....My book is an attempt to redress this." And redress this he does.... In conclusion, Khoury (writing in 1989) expresses concerns over the political unrest in South Africa and the possibility of the Soviets dumping gem-quality diamonds on the world market. Fortunately these concerns have been preempted by the creation of DeBeers Centenary and the Soviet accord of July 25.?-Diamond Insight

About the Author

SARKIS J. KHOURY is Professor of Finance at the University of California, Riverside. He has conducted several seminars on banking, financial planning, and international finance. Khoury has written thirteen books dealing with international finance, speculative markets, international banking, investments, and mathematics of finance and numerous articles, some of which were published in leading journals in the United States.