Stephen A. Zeff

2 Decades Of The Journal-Of-Accounting-Research

* Professor, Cornell University; t Professor, Rice University. We wish to thank our colleagues and particularly Professors William H. Beaver and Joel Demski, both of Stanford University, and Robert J. Swieringa, Cornell University, for their careful reading of this long manuscript and the substantive improvements they suggested. The limitations and omissions remain our responsibility. 1 Given at the 1970 Annual Meeting of the American Accounting Association, the poem, if such is a valid description, was composed by the first editor of JAR, David Green, and published in JAR [1970] with appropriate disclaimers.

Recent trends in accounting education and research in the USA: Some implications for UK academics☆

1. Concern among leaders of the accounting profession over the effectiveness of the standard-setting process, including such considerations as the rate of productivity of standards and the means of securing a greater degree of compliance on the part of companies (‘Dearing to Head ASC Review Body’, 1987). 2. An action taken by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (Black, 1987) and a white paper issued by a working party of the Education and Training Directorate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (Training the Business Professional, 1988), which point towards the exercise of a greater degree of rigour in the accreditation of tertiary accounting curricula, in order that students might receive exemptions from certain parts of the respective institutes’ examinations. 3. The increased tendency to obtain a doctorate at the outset of one’s academic career, and the apparent trend, as reflected by the ‘research gradings’ given by the University Grants Committee, to impose more rigorous standards in the evaluation of academic research.

The Objectives of Financial Reporting: A Historical Survey and Analysis

This article is a survey and analysis of the succession of writings on the objectives of financial reporting during the past 90 years. Its aim is to contribute towards an understanding of the origins, significance, and limitations of conceptual frameworks. The article begins with a review of the extensive literature, including the series of recommended and approved conceptual frameworks, in the USA and then proceeds to examine the corresponding literatures in Great Britain, Canada, and Australia, followed by a discussion of the framework issued by the International Accounting Standards Committee in 1989 and Chapters 1 and 3 of the framework issued by the International Accounting Standards Board and Financial Accounting Standards Board in 2010. Summary remarks about Continental Europe conclude the survey. Attention is drawn to the criticisms of the objectives approach as well as to its possible perverse consequences for the remainder of the framework. In the course of the survey, there is an attempt to trace the evolution of stewardship and conservatism, or prudence, in the series of frameworks.

Du Pont's early policy on the rotation of audit firms

Abstract E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company adopted a policy from 1910 onward of rotating its external audit firm every year, and later every several years, until the 1950s, when it finally consented to appoint a permanent auditor. This practice of audit firm rotation was exceptional, if not unique, among U.S. companies. It is the purpose of this article to review this policy and to present evidence of the company’s reasons for its adoption and, in the end, the decision to appoint a permanent auditor.

Aiming for Global Accounting Standards: The International Accounting Standards Board, 2001-2011

From 2001 to 2011, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and its International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs), acquired a central position in the practice and regulation of financial reporting around the world. As a unique instance of a private-sector body setting standards with legal force in many jurisdictions, the IASBs rise to prominence has been accompanied by vivid political debates about its governance and accountability. Similarly, the IASBs often innovative attempts to change the face of financial reporting have made it the centre of numerous controversies. This book traces the history of the IASB from its foundation as successor to the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC), and discusses its operation, changing membership and leadership, the development of its standards, and their reception in jurisdictions around the world. The book gives particular attention to the IASBs relationships with the European Union, the United States, and Japan, as well as to the impact of the financial crisis on the IASBs work. By its in-depth coverage of the history of the IASB, the book provides essential background information that will enrich the perspective of everyone who has to deal with IFRSs or the IASB at a technical or policy-making level.

Big Eight Firms and the Accounting Literature: The Falloff in Advocacy Writing

The author marshals evidence that partners in Big Eight firms, as well as the firms themselves, have engaged significantly less in advocacy writing in the accounting literature during the last decade compared with the output of articles and firm publications on controversial topics that appeared in the 1960s. He suggests several likely explanations for this trend in the literature, including the increasing competitiveness of public accounting and the transfer of standards-setting authority from a part-time board in which the Big Eight firms played a major role to the full-time Financial Accounting Standards Board. Other explanatory factors are the litigious climate and congressional oversight.

The early years of the Association of University Teachers of Accounting: 1947–1959

The first organization of accounting academics in the UK, the Association of University Teachers of Accounting, was launched in 1947. Today it is known as the British Accounting Association. The Association was initially an enterprise of teachers in English and Welsh universities. It was founded at a time when impetus was being given to the study of accounting in their universities, and the first full-time accounting chairs were established in Britain. It was also a period in which serious efforts were made to stimulate accounting research. The paper will begin with a discussion of the changing climate in accounting education and research, and is followed by a history of the Associations first 12 years.

The Primacy of "Present Fairly" in the Auditor's Report*

In this paper, the author examines the historical evolution in the United States of the use of the term “present fairly” in the auditor’s report, as well as the experience and arguments in the United States and Canada regarding the use of a “two-part” opinion in the report. He then develops an argument for the adoption of a “two-part” opinion, decoupling “present fairly” from conformity with generally accepted accounting principles, which would place primary emphasis on “present fairly”.

THE WORK OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON RESEARCH PROGRAM

This article begins by recounting the circumstances that led to the AICPAs decision in 1957 to appoint a special committee to recommend a stronger research program to support the process of establishing accounting principles. It then proceeds to examine in depth the committees sometimes difficult deliberations that eventually led to a unanimous report, in which it recommended the creation of an Accounting Principles Board and an enlarged accounting research division within the Institute. In the course of the article, the author brings out the strong philosophical differences among several of the Big Eight accounting firms that had been impeding the work of the Committee on Accounting Procedure and that also intruded into the Special Committees deliberations.

Mathews, Gynther and Chambers: three pioneering Australian theorists

Abstract This paper reviews the professional careers and contributions of three distinguished Australian academics, Russell Mathews, Reg Gynther and Ray Chambers, each of whom died recently. Particular attention is paid to their contributions to the debate on price change accounting, including the exchanges that took place between them on this subject. Price change accounting was a central issue in academic and professional debates of the 1960s and 1970s, when the trio were at the peak of their activity as academics. The paper also records the wide range of their contributions to accounting research, education, standard setting and public policy.