This paper analyzes the workings and potentials of French planning as a prototype model of modern capitalist planning. Its principal concern is methodological. How can we analyze, categorize, compare, and criticize planning processes? The French planning process is not a streamlined design of smoothly fitting parts. Its formal structure tells little about its functional structure. Its explicit targets do not define its operational role. The plan is a collection of activities which have never been integrated into a single, coherent process. That is perhaps why there has been so much confusion about the way it operates; it operates in several ways at once. The French plan has two principal components. Each is a complex system possessing a powerful logic of its own. Each is based on a different planning model and each model implies a radically different conception of the political function of planning. Each pulls the plan in a different direction. The first component is a complex institution of daily, pragmatic state intervention in the activities of the major industries. The second is a formally coherent set of output targets-the general resource allocation plan.

New indicators, based on technology titles, are used to measure the impact of innovative activity on the U.S. labor market between 1909 and 1949. We find that positive technology shocks raised productivity, employment, vacancies, and labor turnover and lowered unemployment and business failures. Moreover, automotive and electrical innovations (quintessential general-purpose technologies) had a greater positive impact on employment than those in mechanical innovations. The overall results, compatible with the predictions of the real business cycle model, raise questions about the anemic recovery in employment after 1934 since the strong upsurge in technical change failed to be accompanied by vigorous job expansion.

This paper offers a framework for forecasting aggregate sales of new motor vehicles; this framework incorporates separate models for the change in the vehicle stock and for the rate of vehicle scrappage. Because this approach requires only a minimal set of assumptions about demographic trends, the state of the economy, consumer “preferences,” new vehicle prices and repair costs, and vehicle retirements, it is shown to be especially useful as a macroeconomic forecasting tool. In addition, this paper presents a new historical annual time-series estimate of motor vehicle stocks in the United States.

This study investigates the extent to which a retailer's willingness to share internal (sales and inventory) information with a manufacturer and the reliability of the information transmission between the retailer and the manufacturer affect the total supply-chain profits resulting from two alternative inventory management systems. I present analytical models of a traditional system and a Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) system. The VMI system is a supply-chain management technique in which the retailer delegates its inventory decisions to, and shares its internal accounting information with, the manufacturer. With VMI, the parties aim to reduce inventory-related costs and increase supply-chain profits. The theoretical analysis indicates that the system that produces higher supply-chain profits depends on the extent to which the retailer reveals its internal accounting information to the manufacturer and the ability of the manufacturer to accurately receive and use this information in its decisions. Survey data corroborate the model's prediction that manufacturers are more likely to select VMI when retailers provide more precise sales and inventory (i.e., demand) information and when the manufacturers' systems ensure reliable transmission and receipt of this information. The study's results suggest that managerial accountants should consider the retailer's willingness to share sales and inventory information with the manufacturer and the manufacturer's ability to reliably transmit this information before implementing VMI systems.

This article discuss the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) current activities and goals as they relate to the accounting profession. The Report of the Special Study of Securities Markets was sent to the U.S. Congress, its 175 conclusions and recommendations covered almost every aspect of the securities industry. Since then, the difficult task of implementing the Study recommendations has preempted much of the SEC's time and energy. With the aid of the industry, one have made significant progress. One of the most important achievements was the formulation of the legislation recently passed by the Congress and now known as the Securities Acts Amendments of 1964. Under the new law, many accountants will, for the first time, be faced with problems under the federal securities laws. One should consider it particularly appropriate, therefore, to refer to certain of the new provisions which will be of particular interest to members of accounting profession. The 1964 Amendments deal chiefly with issues of securities traded in the over-the- counter market and the standards of broker dealer firms and their salesman.

The author discusses the impact of new revenue code on accounting. He describes the effects of taxation and tax laws on accounting theory and practice. He discusses the probable effects of changes in taxing rules on accounting practice. He clarifies the possible effects of tax rules on non-tax accounting by way of illustration. He further mentions two new methods which may be used for tax purposes, which are, the double-rate declining balance method and the sum of the years-digits method. He mentions the effects of changes that occur when a taxpayer changes from accrual method of reporting installment sales to the installment method and changes in the selection of fiscal years for tax purposes. He discusses the change that could affect the willingness of taxpayers to change from an accounting method for accounting purposes. He briefly mentions the minor changes which effected in bringing tax accounting closer to financial accounting and code changes which affect accounting indirectly. He mentions the responsibilities of the accounting profession in face of the new internal revenue code.

The article focuses on accounting changes brought about by the Revenue Act of 1954. Though the general rule for accounting methods under the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as set forth in section 446, is substantially the same as the general rule under the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, there are a number of specific types of accounting problems which are singled out for special treatment in the new Code. For the most part, these special provisions represent an effort on the part of the lawmakers to bring tax accounting into closer accord with generally accepted accounting principles. Under the various revenue acts prior to 1939 and under the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, there were many differences between the accounting for certain transactions for tax purposes and for commercial purposes. Some of the major differences could be explained on the grounds of public policy, as in the case of the peculiar treatment of capital gains and losses and in the allowance of percentage depletion, to name only two. Others could be said to result from the necessity of determining taxable net income rather than business net income, as in the case of the allowances for expenses of a purely personal nature and the credits for personal exemptions.

Citations are given to show that since 1888 some people have understood the idea of effective tariffs. For fourteen studies on twenty-six countries done during the last five years, one finds a rank correlation of .95 between the height of a nation's average effective tariff and the height of the nation's average nominal tariff. Looking at the effective tariff and the nominal tariff for various industries within a country, one finds both a significant regression between them and a rank correlation between them of over .70 for twenty-three of the twenty-six countries. I speculate on reasons for these results.