Hans Johnson, Editor
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO
DOCTORAL RESEARCH
Perspectives on the “Objectives of Financial Statements” (NYU, 1976, 336 pp.; 37/4, p. 2264-A*) by Robert Bloom examines “the historical, empirical, and the theoretical perspectives on the AICPA Study Report. . .” According to Bloom, “a study of the roots and antecedents of the Report should clarify the objectives identified in the Report, cast light on the Report’s acceptability, and provide a broader framework for developing accounting theory.” His thesis is that “the Report has substantial foundations and support in previous accounting literature, empirical research, and normative models.” To test the thesis “twentieth-century American accounting writings are examined.” The “theoretical foundations of the Report” are reviewed based upon an analysis “of selected theories and models from economics, finance, the behavioral sciences, and social law.”
Bloom’s research indicates that “in general, the objectives set forth in the Report are not really new,” and “the extent of support for each objective varies considerably.” Further, “neither the Study Group’s nor the FASB’s empirical research provide substantial backing, contrary to what was hypothesized, for most of the objectives presented in the Report.” Economic income and discounted cashflow models “furnish underpinnings for nearly all of the objectives” and “the ‘right-to-know’ theory provides implicit backing for each objective.”
Bloom concludes that “although the Report is based upon his-torical thought in accounting, the empirical research conducted by the Study Group, and selected normative models, it does not de-velop a rigorous model for accounting objectives in terms of these foundations.”
Robert M. Trueblood, CPA: The Consumate Professional (Georgia State U., 1976,315 pp.; 37/4, p. 2264-A) by Roscoe Bryson analyzes and evaluates the “life and contributions” of the late partner of Touche & Ross. The author states that “this study dealt primarily with Trueblood’s contributions to the growth of the accounting pro-fession and to the development of accounting and auditing thought and practice in non-regulated industries.” Research sources in-cluded “selected published and unpublished writings” of True-blood, and interviews “held with many of his contemporaries.” The dissertation reviews Trueblood’s early life, his work as a practitioner and public servant, his efforts “to improve both education and practice,” and “his efforts to improve financial reporting practices, particularly through his chairmanship of the Study Group on the Objectives of Financial Statements. . . .”
According to Bryson, “the conclusion shows how his achieve-ments and ideas have left the profession with greater opportunities for service in the coming years.”
Robert H. Montgomery: A Pioneer Leader of American Account-ing (U. of Alabama, 1971,368 pp.; 32/9, p. 4767-A) by Alfred Roberts provides an “insight into the personality” of the man, traces “his personal involvement in the development of professional accounting organizations,” and evaluates “his influence on accounting literature.” During his career which spanned the years 1889 to 1953, Montgomery was a founding partner of Coopers & Lybrand, a prolific author, a tax lawyer, and a “professor of accountancy at Columbia University.” Roberts comments that “he was a man of exceptional ability who happened to have entered the field of accountancy at a point in time when it needed leadership and direction as it evolved to the status of a profession.” And, “Robert H. Montgomery devoted his most productive years to guiding accounting from an obscure trade to the highly respected position that it occupies today.”
A History of the Certified Public Accounting Profession in Louisiana (LSU, 1976, 143 pp.; 37/5, p. 2983-A) by Daniel Butler reviews the development of the profession in this state from 1908, the year the first CPA law was passed by the state legislature, to the present time.
A Critical Evaluation of Comparative Financial Accounting Thought in America 1900 to 1920 (U. of Florida, 1972, 273 pp.; 34/6, p. 2812-A) by Gary John Previts examines the writings of William Morse Cole, Arthur Lowes Dickinson, Paul-Joseph Esquerre, Henry Rand Hatfield, Roy Bernard Kester, Robert Heister Montgomery,
Charles Ezra Sprague and John Raymond Wildman which were presumed to be “representative of the leading thought of the age.” These writers “significantly transformed” financial accounting in America. The years 1900 to 1920 are viewed as the “Preclassical period” due to the important influence the published works of these gentlemen had on “later (Classical) accounting theory.” After a “colligatory examination of the life history of these individuals and the environment of the period, the theoretical research is divided between an analysis of Preclassical value theory and income determination theory.” Previts’ inquiry is “based upon the relationships existing among: (1) the triad (audit, advise and attest) of duties undertaken by Preclassical accountants; (2) the role of “professional” judgment in the joining of these duties with (3) the need for a set of fundamental precepts to underlie the discharge of accountants’ professional functions.” Further, “a comparative functional mode is employed in the inquiry, stressing the warrantability of notions in their initial definitional setting, with dialectical considerations added to achieve pre and post transformational perspective.”
From his research Previts’ concludes that “the essential princi-ples of the profit determination and disclosure theories of the period can be traced to the doctrines and format found in Dickinson’s 1904 address to the Congress of Accountants. . .” Dickinson’s comments dealt with expense recognition, realized profits on sales of fixed assets, and capital maintenance.
Finally, the “signal contributions of Preclassical writers” are analyzed in terms of constituting a “School of Thought.”
The Role of Accounting in the Economic Development of Eng-land: 1500 to 1750 (U. of Illinois, 1970, 400 pp.; 31/9, p. 4327-A) by James Ole Winjum tests the theory that “the system of double entry bookkeeping . . . . was an active catalyst in the economic expansion that occurred in Europe following the close of the Middle Ages, both as an instrument for ordering of economic data, and in the role that it played in transforming medieval man’s attitude toward economic life.” Source material for the dissertation consisted of “published double entry treatises, including their illustrative accounting records, and the extant account books of individual merchants, partnerships and joint stock companies. . .”
Winjum’s study reveals that “the system of double entry book-keeping was developed and explained fully by even the earliest English authors of the mid-sixteenth century, and its exposition and illustration basically remained unchanged for the next two hundred years.” The extant account books lagged behind the contemporary textbooks “and often reveal little more than a desire on the part of the merchant to have a comprehensive and systematic record of his receivables and debts.” But, “by the eighteenth century this situation had changed; the accounting records are clearer, were more conscientiously maintained, and reveal a greater awareness and utilization of double entry’s ability. . .”
Winjum concludes that “scholars have been generally correct in assuming that accounting played a significant role in the economic, growth and development that occurred during this period.”
Some Nineteenth Century English Accountants’ Contributions to Reporting for the Use of Long-Lived Assets (U. of Nebraska, 1970, 272 pp.; 31/8, p. 3710-A) by Kenneth O. Elvik. From his review of the “English journal literature” after 1880, Elvik states that “the conventional model of today, based on input prices, has a history of its own, and should not, as has been frequently suggested, be relegated to the role of a substitute for some ideal but impractical model.” According to the author, “the inherited (ideal) model, according to the history of accounting, was one that emphasized an inventory of appraisal values on the balance sheet along with a corollary concept of income based on change in value of individual assets, including those acquired for use in the business.” Further, this “model was abandoned in favor of (the conventional) one based on input prices” since difficulties arose “in arriving at valuations for specialized assets used by increasingly complex industries.”
The English journal literature emphasized the balance sheet as opposed to the profit and loss account. Elvik suggests that this may have been due to “nineteenth century management secrecy (which) was far more strict than today with respect to operational details of revenue and expense.” Thus, it appears that “the dis-cussion about balance sheet valuations was an emphasis on data that management did not consider sufficiently important to suppress.”
Also included in the dissertation are several chapters “devoted to the background which resulted in the creation of an accounting profession.” This includes a “brief outline of the Companies Acts and some comments on other acts pertaining to certain regulated industries.” Finally, “two chapters are devoted to observations in the late nineteenth century on accounting for goodwill and reac-tions of accountants to selected court decisions.”
Accounting in the Golden Age of Greece (U. of Santa Clara, 1972, 194 pp.5 33/4, p. 5883-A) by George Costouros. The author states that “although the socio-economic environment of Athens in the Golden Age of Greece, known as the classical period (500-400 B.C.), has received attention of many scholars, very little has been written on early Greek accounting.” The purposes of the dissertation are to “(a) study Athenian financial records of the Golden Age, (b) explain the origin of the accounting system as a response to socio-economic needs created by the environment, and (c) trace the evolution of the system as it met changing socio-economic needs.” An accounting system was defined as “a set of closely integrated procedures established to record and control the actions and activities of a given entity.” The elements of the Athenian system included ”
(a) an accounting entity, i.e., the Treasury of Athenia, in which the state financial transactions could be recorded and controlled,
(b) budgets to plan and control the activities of this entity,
(c) accounting records showing the execution of such plans, and
(d) audits for the verification of results and establishment of accountability.”
Costouros concludes that “effective management of state public finance required the development of an accounting system which enabled government to control state resources, establish accountability against public officials, and report the results.
