Journal Article A Geometric Duality Theorem with Economic Applications Get access D. Gale D. Gale University of California, Berkeley Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 34, Issue 1, January 1967, Pages 19–24, https://doi.org/10.2307/2296568 Published: 01 January 1967

Reviews the book "Advanced Accounting," by Walter B. Meigs, Charles E. Johnson and Thomas Keller.

I. Introduction, 170. — II. The "pure" Soviet-type index, 173. — III. The output index with value-added weights, 176. — IV. Empirical experiments, 182. — Mathematical appendix, 186.

Considerable attention has been given in accounting literature to the development and refinement of alternative procedures of measurement and calculation, However, the problem of establishing the descriptive validity of accounting measurements and calculations has only recently received direct attention. The necessity of verifying the descriptive validity of accounting calculations issues directly from the accounting objective of providing descriptions or explanations of economic activity that are relevant to the purposive actions and adaptive behavior of data users. There is a tendency in contemporary accounting thought to argue or assume that the propriety of accounting calculations is sufficiently established (1) by the employment of ratio measurement scales and/or (2) by the ability of the number system governing measurement to satisfy the mathematical requirements of a field. We submit that neither of these two factors establishes the descriptive validity of accounting calculations. Further, we conclude that verification of descriptive validity necessarily requires empirical operations in the form of independent measurements that prove the additive nature of the property being measured.

This article focuses on the accounting aid for developing countries. The developing countries which constitute the majority in the world in both numbers and population are struggling to develop primary production to enable them to effectively utilize their resources, generate employment, and equitably distribute their wealth. The industrialization process in the United States and in Western Europe has been evolutionary in nature and has required several hundred years. During this time accounting, engineering, and other related professions have also developed through an evolutionary process both in terms of theory and procedures, and in terms of the number of people engaged in these professions. Some of the developing countries of the present day are attempting to avoid this long evolutionary process in their industrial development. By utilizing the organizational methods and technical knowledge they hope to achieve as much in terms of industrialization in a few decades as America and Western Europe