Fair value vs conservatism? Aspects of the history of accounting, auditing, business and finance from ancient Mesopotamia to modern China

Macve, Richard

doi:10.1016/j.bar.2014.01.001

Cited by 46 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…Glover (2013, p. 4) points out that transformation from social engineers to social scientists has been seen as conferring academic status. Macve, 2013). level engineers now to have mastered an understanding of how the world works (i.e. 18 We certainly expect our highest 15 All the panellists agree on this.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…But any idea that accounting can report objectively the true financial position and financial performance (and thereby prospects?) have all come to take for granted, and which serves to provide the reassurance needed to sustain such risky "action at a distance" that is essential to sustain in turn the modern economic and financial world (McMillan, 1998;Macve, 2013). One has only to consider the AC101 tropes of incorrigible allocations and the subjectivity in accruals for impairment provisions and liabilities, depending inter alia on the selection of "the unit of account" (c.f.…”

Section: "Rational Institutional Myths"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Gao, 2013). Macve, 2010Macve, , 2013. Indeed, what is regarded as auditable/verifiable is in turn socially constructed (Power, 1996(Power, , 2010.…”

Section: "Rational Institutional Myths"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While Positive Accounting Theory (Watts & Zimmerman, 1990) offers explanations of managerial choice within the system, it does not itself explain the available range of acceptable accounting policy choices, where historical path dependency may be as convincing an explanation as rational evolution (if not a more convincing one) for the observed bias in favour of the continuance of long-standing conventions such as "historical cost" and "conservatism" (cf. As with the inefficient QWERTY keyboard, the costs of changing what we have inherited through an accident of mid-nineteenth century timinglegacies that are now embedded in so many organizational and institutional relationships (continually reinforced by current accounting education and skills training)may now have increasingly become too great to overcome at an acceptable cost even if we did know what the optimal design for the "best" accounting standards would be in what is inevitably a "second best" world (Lipsey & Lancaster, 1956;David, 1985;Sunder, 1997, p. 165;Macve, 2010Macve, , 2013. As with the inefficient QWERTY keyboard, the costs of changing what we have inherited through an accident of mid-nineteenth century timinglegacies that are now embedded in so many organizational and institutional relationships (continually reinforced by current accounting education and skills training)may now have increasingly become too great to overcome at an acceptable cost even if we did know what the optimal design for the "best" accounting standards would be in what is inevitably a "second best" world (Lipsey & Lancaster, 1956;David, 1985;Sunder, 1997, p. 165;Macve, 2010Macve, , 2013.…”

Section: "Rational Institutional Myths"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Chapman et al, 2009). Fleischman, 2009;Macve, 2013). Waymire & Basu, 2007) is also valuable in making sense of current and emerging issuesbut it has to be good history (cf.…”

Section: Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Trading Places”: A UK (and IFRS) Comment

Macve¹

2014

Accounting, Economics and Law

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This paper is based on my presentation given as part of a panel discussion at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Accounting Association in August 2012 in Washington DC. To the other panellists' papers (Glover, 2013; Zeff, 2013b) I add a contrasting perspective from other countries (primarily the UK and the rest of Europe) that incorporates a variety of other actors and differing uses (or 'objectives') of financial accounting and reporting. I consider briefly in turn: the major actors; major external uses of financial reports; the 'rational institutional myths' that sustain the role of accounting standards; and the potential contributions both of research and of university accounting education. I argue that 'positive' and 'normative' research, reflecting a deep understanding of accounting's history, must continue to be complementary in the social engineering of better accounting standards and rules.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: "Rational Institutional Myths"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Gao, 2013). Macve, 2010Macve, , 2013. Indeed, what is regarded as auditable/verifiable is in turn socially constructed (Power, 1996(Power, , 2010.…”

Section: "Rational Institutional Myths"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: "Rational Institutional Myths"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Chapman et al, 2009). Fleischman, 2009;Macve, 2013). Waymire & Basu, 2007) is also valuable in making sense of current and emerging issuesbut it has to be good history (cf.…”

Section: Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Trading Places”: A UK (and IFRS) Comment

Macve¹

2014

Accounting, Economics and Law

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Informationsinstrumente und Kapitalmarkt

Kühnberger

2017

Kapitalmarktorientierte Rechnungslegung

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The ‘internationalisation’ of accounting history publishing

Jones

Oldroyd

2015

The British Accounting Review

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2015) 'The`internationalisation' of accounting history publishing.', British accounting review., 47 (2). pp. 117-123. Further information on publisher's website:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bar. 2014.11.003 Publisher's copyright statement: NOTICE: this is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in The British Accounting Review. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be re ected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A de nitive version was subsequently published in The British Accounting Review, 47, 2, June 2015, 10.1016/j.bar.2014.11.003. Additional information:Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. delegates from across the world and 119 papers were presented -66% from academics from four countries (Italy, Turkey, UK and US). Most of these papers (75%) covered the period from 1800onwards. This paper sets out the contextual framework in which the papers presented at the World Congress should be viewed with particular reference to the problems faced by non-AngloSaxon academics trying to publish in English-language journals. It then introduces the papers accepted for the special issue, highlighting some of the overlapping themes. These papers cover a wider range of topics than is usual in English-speaking journals (two relating to British Shipbuilding, one on accounting developments from Mesopotamia to today, one on Japanese accounting in World War II and two on medieval accounting (in England and Turkey).

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Fair value vs conservatism? Aspects of the history of accounting, auditing, business and finance from ancient Mesopotamia to modern China

Cited by 46 publications

References 94 publications

“Trading Places”: A UK (and IFRS) Comment

“Trading Places”: A UK (and IFRS) Comment

Informationsinstrumente und Kapitalmarkt

The ‘internationalisation’ of accounting history publishing

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