In this paper, we present the results of a comprehensive survey of accounting faculties' opinions and practices regarding ethics education. Consistent with recent state boards' decisions to require ethics continuing professional education (CPE) in the accounting curriculum, we find that accounting educators recognize the importance of ethics education to satisfy the profession's needs. Accounting educators rate themselves as the most appropriate source of ethics education and favor practical application over theoretical course content. In terms of the approach used to teach ethics, educators support integration over a stand-alone course and believe cases offer the most effective method for ethics instruction.
Computer-based decision aids are intended to support and improve human judgments. Frequently, the largest portion of the design effort is devoted to the technical aspects of the system; behavioral aspects are often overlooked. As a result, the decision aid may be ineffective. An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of two information structure variables that theoretically affect judgments: information sequence and irrelevant distractor information. Auditor subjects made continuing existence judgments for client-banks after interacting with one of four alternative decision aids. The decision aids are modifications of a system developed by an international CPA firm. Judgments were predicted to be more accurate when: (1) diagnostic information is presented late rather than early in the information sequence and (2) when no irrelevant distractor information is presented. Further, judgment confidence was predicted to be unrelated to either information sequence or irrelevant distractor information. The experimental data support all three predictions.
Book Reviews In each issue, JATA publishes reviews of textbooks and other books of interest to tax scholars. All book reviews are solicited by the Associate Editor. However, if you know of a book that you would like reviewed, or if you are interested in reviewing a book, please contact the Associate Editor.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.