Reviews the book "Survey of Published Accounts 1969-1970."

This article presents information on socio-economic accounting. Several possible dimensions of socio-economic accounting have been suggested, including national income accounting, evaluation of social programs, the role of accounting in economic development and efforts to develop an index of social progress. This paper explores yet another dimension of socio-economic accounting-the recognition and measurement of external diseconomies, or social costs and the resulting implications for the accounting profession. The most complex and controversial, link in the assessment process is the determination of the social costs-monetizing the external diseconomies. Accountants are likely to resist involvement in such efforts because of the uncertainty involved, but such resistance is not justified. Cost determination is more the forte of accountants than of engineers and economists. Assuming that actual social cost estimation will be done by public agencies at some level of government, it then seems not unlikely that the accounting profession will be called upon to attest to such estimates.

This article presents an analysis of Accounting Principles Board Statement 4. The statement attempts to provide a structure that can be used in approaching some of the vexing practical problems that have been plaguing the profession in recent years. The objectives set forth in the statement are interesting, aspire to completeness and could lead to considerable change in financial accounting in the future. And the description of present generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) is the first description of our present situation that is both systematic and authoritative. Because of these and other features and because it is ambitious in scope theorist should find much in Statement to analyze and discuss. The developmental purpose is to pro vide a basis for guiding the future development of financial accounting. The statement has implicit purposes as well as explicit ones. It sets out a frame work that the Board wants to test in the marketplace of ideas. The statement also sets out a tentative list of objectives of financial accounting that needs testing and development in the crucible of heated discussion. Finally, the statement serves the important function of calling the Board it- self back to a more fundamental approach.

Reviews the book "Introduction to Accounting: Economic Measurement for Decisions," by William J. Bruns.

The article discusses the use of mathematical models across a variety of disciplines and practices. Mathematical models, naturally, are represented by means of mathematical relations. The mathematical models which will be of interest in this article generally proceed via the special kinds of mathematical relations called "functions," which are used to represent some or all of the relations. Double-entry accounting has been used as a basis for planning and control at both economy-wide and individual-enterprise levels. This is to say that double-entry accounting provides a tool of great utility which can be employed in a variety of ways and contexts. Beyond the convenience of moving back and forth between accounting and interindustry analyses, the mathematics associated with this modeling has permitted a variety of other uses and extensions. The examples in this article should make it clear, however, that this is not the end. Still more may be available from further research in model equivalences and related explorations. Indeed the "models" definition we introduced in the first section of the preceding paper is designed to underscore the potential value of such continuing explorations.

This article discusses two linear programming models used in capital budgeting. Many real-world optimization problems have the property that optimal decisions must be stated in terms of integers or whole numbers. This is the case, for example, in capital budgeting models where the integer 0 means that one does not undertake a project and the integer 1 indicates that one does. A model for many such problems is that of integer programming. The two models include a linear programming model without integer restrictions and the other the same linear programming model but with integer restrictions on the decision variables. The former, which is an approximation, is referred as the LP model, and the latter is referred as the IP model. There is no way to round an LP optimal solution to get an optimal solution to the IP model.

This article provides information on a study that presented an elementary accounting profile in the U.S. during the academic year 1969-1970. During the academic year 1969-1970, a four-page questionnaire relating to elementary accounting was sent to the heads of accounting departments at all schools accredited by the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business. Administrative matters relate to such things as the number of credit hours to be granted for the course, the level of student to which the course will be offered, and whether or not a special course in elementary accounting will be offered. The schools replying to the questionnaire provided the following information relating to administrative matters. The schools in this study favor the sophomore level for the student's first exposure to accounting instruction. Sixty-seven of the schools teach elementary accounting at the sophomore level, 18 schools teach elementary accounting at the freshman level, while the remaining three schools either did not answer the question or teach elementary accounting above the sophomore level.

Reviews the book "Financial Accounting: Basic Concepts," by Earl A. Spiller.

This article describes an experiment with the curriculum for the introductory accounting course. A necessary complementary objective was an increase in the students' understanding of balance sheet and the relationships between income measurement, the balance sheet, and the funds statement. A corollary objective was a decrease in the reliance on double-entry bookkeeping as the basic method of teaching accounting concepts. A completed venture model was used first to present the basic concept of income determination. In a completed venture, income and cash flow are easily related. Cash receipts and cash disbursements are familiar ideas to most students. Conventional pedagogy begins by explaining income as a change in wealth, or net worth, an explanation which presumes a rather sophisticated definition for assets and liabilities. The course introduces periodic income determination for an on-going entity by using the ideas introduced in the discussion of a completed venture. Cash flows related to operating transactions serve as the foundation for periodic measurement of income.