Journal Article The Elasticity of Demand from Family Budgets Get access A. C. Pigou A. C. Pigou King's College, Cambridge, England Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 47, Issue 2, February 1933, Page 342, https://doi.org/10.2307/1883692 Published: 01 February 1933
Abstract The article focuses on socialized accounts in the United States. The author says that the industrial evolution is important in the United States. The new era of the twenties was real as its ideal of full production and abundant living is not lost. The first phase of the evolution of accountancy was likewise the longest. It consisted of two distinct movements. The earliest was concerned with the formation of the accounting mechanism or methodology-bookkeeping; the later movement covered the expansion of double-entry methodology to suit subsequent conditions. An account for money as well as goods is not difficult to reconstruct. A consciousness of proprietorship is more fundamental to the expansion of account-keeping into double entry bookkeeping than bilateral accounts, subtraction by contraentry, equality of debit and credit, or any the other peculiarities of double entry. The second phase of accountancy is related to attempts to secure some measure of control over private affairs in the social interest. The approach was through enforcing a partial sharing of otherwise private business data, of instituting, as it were, semi-public accounts. The third phase will probably carry the socialization of accounts still further.
Abstract In determining the investment base, several alternatives immediately occur to either the accountant or the economist. Total assets is one possibility. Total assets less intangibles is another. The sum of all items of corporate capital structure; bonded debt, capital stock and surplus and undivided profits, is a third. Still a fourth base might be the sum of capital stock and surplus, without the inclusion of funded debt. Capital assets may be stated on the basis of cost or on the basis of a valuation. Just because, in the case of any individual corporation, assets may be stated upon a cost basis or upon the basis of an appraisal, it is often believed that no valid general figures can be developed. Many small companies overvalue their property accounts. On the other hand, a number of large companies are quite conservative in their charges to depreciation, obsolescence and other reserves. If charges to depreciation are not separated from charges to other reserves, if revaluations of plant and equipment are not explained in detail in the annual report, then the task of making allowances for conservatism or extravagance in estimating such margins of error is intensified.
Abstract The article presents information that bright students at the University of Illinois, in the United States, are encouraged to do a portion of their study without class room attendance. This may be done at the student's option either by preparing a written thesis or by doing special reading. The senior thesis option has been available for about ten years. It is required of seniors who expect to be graduated with High Honors but is open to others by special permission. The intention is that the student will make an intensive examination into some topic of personal interest; perhaps it will be in regard to some subject matter which was but briefly treated in one of his classes, frequently the study is more directly related to his own specific business intentions or to some family enterprise. The administration of the work is simple for after the student has selected his topic he works individually with the faculty man who is thought to be best acquainted with the field of his study. The few conferences which are necessary regarding sources, outline and occasional "snags" are no great burden on the teacher and reading the finished work is more interesting than otherwise.
Reviews three books related to accounting. "Die Betriebswirtschaft," by H. Nicklisch; "Bilanz der Aktiengesellschaft," by R. Ruth and K. Schmaltz; "Wirtschaftsprüfung und Revisionswesen," by C.E. Poeschel.