Knowledge that Transforms

Reviews the book "Case Studies in Management Accounting," by John Sizer.

Presents data on the state of graduate tax education in the United States colleges of business administration as of January 1975. Universities offering graduate tax degrees; Summary of questionnaire data; Summary of university catalogs; Courses frequently offered.

Presents a commentary on the study of Kermit Larson and R. W. Schattke on the additivity of current cash equivalent (CCE). Arguments concerning the nonadditivity of CCE; Principle of measurement theory; Process which incorporates the combining operation for purchasing power and can be used to determine whether the property is additive.

This article describes a generalized quantitative approach to the presentation of percentage-of-completion method for recognizing profit on long-term construction contracts. This method has two distinct advantages over the non-quantitative approach. First, the use of a programmable symbolic language permits the student to be appraised of the potential for determining profit on many contracts virtually instantaneously. Such an environment is realistic to many actual business situations. Second, this method permits attention to be focused on the conceptual aspects of the percentage-of-completion method and avoids the danger of centering attention on the arithmetic busy-work which is inherent in the non-quantitative approach. Essentially, the percentage-of-completion method is an attempt to recognize income in proportion to progress on a project for each year in which construction occurs. Relevant data for this calculation include estimated project life in years, contract price, expenditures in year i, and the estimated cost to complete the contract made in year i.

Presents a response to a letter to the editor about price-level restated accounting and the measurement of inflation gains and losses, published in this issue of the periodical.

Presents a reply to the commentary on the study on the quadratic cost-volume relationship and timing of demand information. Types of quadratic cost functions analyzed; Alternative proposed in the commentary regarding fixed costs; Failure of the study to point out the implications of the optimization analysis according to four possibilities.

Reviews the book 'Intermediate Accounting,' by Donald E. Kieso and Jerry J. Weygandt.

Presents a letter to the editor about price-level restated accounting and the measurement of inflation gains and losses.

Reviews the book "Fund Accounting: Theory and Practice," by Edward S. Lynn and Robert J. Freeman.

Presents a reply to Bart Ward's commentary on the assessment of prior distributions for applying Bayesian statistics in auditing. Assumption regarding the problem of obtaining prior distributions of good quality; Fallacy of Ward's reasoning.