Lease or Purchase

Leasing of capital assets has become an important financing method, not only in the United States but in most West European countries as well. As a result, more and more often, practitioners and theorists are confronted with the lease-or-purchase issue. It may be rather difficult, however, to resolve this issue since there is a multitude of lease-or-purchase models that vary widely in assumed initial conditions, form, and content. In this book, I review and evaluate a number of these models, paying attention to financial leases as well as to operating leases. The models will be analyzed verbally, by means of a numerical example and utilizing uniform mathematical nota- tion. After having discussed the theoretical achievements in this area, I investigate the reasons why preference is given to leasing in real-world situa- tions and then look into any differences in legal provisions, income tax systems, and accounting regulations in various countries as they may affect the leasing of capital assets. Consequently, I feel that this book is a helpful instrument for both theorists and practitioners confronted with the lease-or- purchase decision. Many people made valuable contributions toward developing this book, among others my colleagues of the Department of Business Finance of Erasmus University, Rotterdam. Besides, I am especially indebted to Pro- fessor Dr. A. I. Diepenhorst for his advice and suggestions, to an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments, and to Mrs. M. Leutscher-Van den Berg for her patient help in preparing the various versions of the manuscript.