The Tangled Web Of Price Variation Accounting

The Tangled Web of Price Variation Accounting covers a wide range of topics in the area of price variation - from purchasing power, prices and inflation, to price level variations and serviceability.

Raymond John Chambers was born just over a century ago on 16 November 1917. It is more than fifty years since his first classic, Accounting, Evaluation and Economic Behavior, was published, more than forty since Securities and Obscurities: Reform of the Law of Company Accounts (republished in 1980 as Accounting in Disarray) and over twenty since the unique An Accounting Thesaurus: Five Hundred Years of Accounting. They are drawn upon extensively in this biography of Chambers’ intellectual contributions, as are other of his published works. Importantly, we also analyze archival correspondence not previously examined. While Chambers provided several bibliographical summaries of his work, without the benefits of reviewing and interspersing the text with correspondence materials from the Chambers Archive this study would lack an appreciation of the impact of his early childhood, and nuances related to his practical (including numerous consultancies) and academic experiences. The ‘semi-biographical narrative’ codifies article and editorial length exercises by the authors drawing on parts of the archive related to theory development, measurement and communication. Other parts are also examined. This allows us to respond to those critics who claim his reforms were naive. They further reveal a man of theory and practice, whose theoretical ideas were solidly grounded on observations from his myriad interests and experiences. Many of his practical experiences have not been examined previously. This approach and the first book-length biography differentiates this work from earlier analyses of Chambers’ contribution to the accounting literature. We provide evidence to support the continued push for the reforms he proposed to accepted accounting thought and practice to ensure accounting is the serviceable technology so admired by Pacioli, Da Vinci and many other Renaissance pioneers. It will be of interest to researchers, educators, practitioners and regulators alike.

Originally published in 1990, this anthology of articles from the German financial and industrial press, translated into English for this volume, discusses the socio/politico/economic background that was a catalyst for the development of replacement cost accounting ideas in Europe and Anglo-American countries. The contributions to the replacement cost debate contained in this anthology, in general, defended depeciation and cost accumulation based on replacement cost. If industry and the German economy were to prosper in a time of social, economic and political chaos in the immediate post World War I period, replacement cost accounting was considered essential.

The essays contained in this volume canvass a broad range of issues, including accounting theory, accounting history, international accounting, management accounting, internal auditing, and accounting education. The contributions range in style from thought pieces to histories to cross-sectional and case study analyses.

An important scholar in the history of accounting, Geoffrey Whittington's numerous articles cover a broad spectrum of the field and are both sharply insightful and extremely significant. He has made important contributions to the topics of inflation accounting, accounting theory and methodology and standard-setting, and he has conducted a number of valuable empirical studies. This remarkable collection pulls together essays and articles and encompasses his work on empirical studies based on company accounts, specification of empirical models, price change accounting, taxation and regulation, and regulation of accounting and auditing. Accompanied by a new introduction and conclusion, this significant volume will be extremely useful for historians of accounting as well as accountancy practitioners and researchers.

This fascinating book presents a lively discussion of key issues resulting from the recent financial crisis. The expert contributors explore why the global financial crisis occurred, how it destroyed wealth, triggered mass unemployment and created an unprecedented loss of control on employment, monetary policy and government budgets. Important topics encompassing the origin and impact of the crisis, governance failure, regulatory forgiveness, credit splurges, asset bubbles and the greed of institutions are analysed from the wide-ranging perspectives of not only academics in both economics and law, but also industry practitioners and regulators. This multidimensional evaluation of what went wrong concludes with an outline of what is currently being done to prevent another major crisis, and prescribes recommendations for the implementation of further preventative measures. This book will prove a compelling read for economics, finance and law scholars, as well as for practitioners including accountants, lawyers and financial market players.

When originally published in 1994 this volume was the first international review of accounting theory to focus on the contributions of its leading thinkers. Very few attempts had been made, in the accounting literature, to assess the contribution of the theorists who have had such an important influence on the direction of research and practice. Written by experts the studies in this volume provide a unique guide to the development of accounting theory and practice in regions as diverse as the USA, Japan and Europe.

This book, first published in 1990, examines the works of Theodore Limberg and Fritz Schmidt and their contribution to the development of the case for replacement price valuations. It analyses which of Limberg's and Schmidt's contributions was the most prominent and whether either was the genesis of an evolutionary development of replacement price valuations. This analysis is apposite. History indicates we will experience further periods of inflation and accompanying debate on the serviceability of accounting proposals to incorporate the financial effects of price and price-level changes.