Reviews the book "Information for Decision Making," edited by Alfred Rappaport.

Recently, professors Karl Kafer and V. K. Zimmerman presented an excellently documented paper on the evolution of the funds statement in the U.S. and in Europe. Following extensive exploration, they pointed out some significant deficiencies of the funds statement. The main purpose of this article, however, is to present a different format for the construction of this flow statement. It is hoped that a structural change in this flow statement will throw some additional light on the study of flows of economic resources at the business-enterprise level. In addition to recognizing the distinction between financial and nonfinancial flows of business operations, it is important to analyze their interplay. Productive activities may be financed internally, externally, or both. A detailed presentation of the financial activities of an enterprise will show not only how additional productive resources are acquired, but will also provide a basis, in part at least, for analyzing expansion and future income flow. The conventional balance sheet and income statement are deficient in depicting financial activities of a firm and in relating theft relationship to the firm's productive activities. It must be remembered that net income is "attributable to the whole process of business activity" and that the operations involves continuous movement of productive and financial resources. The resources-flow statement should not be treated as a supplementary device. It is a basic statement in its own right. With two basic types of flows, the need for at least two flow statements is quite dear. In addition, the resources-flow statement is much more than a statement of financial flows.

The two levels of accounting, microaccounting on one hand and macroaccounting on the other, indicate not only that accounting is a rapidly expanding field but also that accounting plays an important role in today's complex economy. The purpose of this article is to explore the interrelationship between microaccounting and macroaccounting. More specifically, it attempts, firstly, to identify macroaccounting as a branch of accounting; secondly, to examine briefly the interrelationships among the four sub-areas of accounting and economics, i.e., microaccounting, macroaccounting, microeconomics, and macroeconomics; thirdly, to compare some of the basic similarities and dissimilarities between microaccounting and macroaccounting; and finally to explore potential influences of macroaccounting on microaccounting. The article concludes that the demand for additional information from accounting for managerial, investment, and analytical purposes points to the need for more constructive and creative thinking in accounting.

The indispensableness of a national position statement in addition to the national income accounting system for macroeconomic analysis can scarcely be overemphasized. But this hardly seems to be recognized by most economists who seem to have placed greater emphasis on income accounts than on stock accounts. Indeed, students of economics have failed to visualize the vantage of combining position and income statements in their analytical work. It is clear that to use but one of the two statements to analyze an economy is at best a partial study. Moreover, the macroaccounting mechanism will become an incomplete system without a balance sheet. In the application of accounting to economics it should be pointed out that the national balance sheet alone cannot furnish all the information needed for national position analysis. For a penetrating study a combination with other branches of macroaccounting seems desirable, such as regional and sector balance sheets, national income accounts, input-output tables, moneyflows, and balance of payments. In order to explore fully the functions of national position statement, a series of statements covering a period of several years will give a more meaningful study than the use of any single statement.

The two terms, microaccounting and macroaccounting, are created mainly for the purpose of recognizing the extent of the progress of accounting today. The term macroaccounting has the advantage over others in identifying explicitly the area to which accounting is applied. Macroaccounting is still expanding and the discussion of its six major branches in this paper is by no means exhaustive. Macroaccounting may be studied at two levels, business macroaccounting and economic macroaccounting. It is obvious that in this paper efforts have mostly been devoted to the former. Eventually, a set of conventions, assumptions, and standards for macroaccounting will be developed as in microaccounting. It is also suggested that most of the principles and standards of microaccounting may be applied to macroaccounting with modifications and additions. In examining the various branches of macroaccounting, one must note that the development of a national balance sheet has lagged behind in a manner that tends to cripple the entire system of macroaccounting. Another major task is to integrate the several branches of macroaccounting regarding classifications of accounts and systems of recording transactions. Only in this way can the full usefulness of macro- accounting be reached. The problem of the valuation basis is a complex one. No single method can answer all the questions. No matter what valuation bases are selected, the principles of consistency and comparability should be strictly observed. The need for offering macroaccounting courses in accounting departments was also suggested.

This study examines whether institutional ownership and analyst following affect the value relevance of disclosed versus recognized pension liabilities. Using a sample of firms with pension liabilities that were disclosed under SFAS No. 87 and subsequently recognized under SFAS No. 158 from 1999 to 2007, I find that off-balance-sheet pension liabilities are more value relevant for firms with a higher level of institutional ownership or analyst following in the pre-158 period. More importantly, I find that SFAS No. 158 increases the value relevance of previously disclosed off-balance-sheet pension liabilities for firms with a low level of institutional ownership or analyst following, and that the increase in the value relevance becomes less pronounced for firms with a higher level of institutional ownership or analyst following. Overall, the results are consistent with the view that institutional ownership and analyst following affect the value relevance of disclosed information as well as the valuation difference between disclosed and recognized information. This study also highlights the importance of considering institutional ownership and analyst following in the value-relevance research. Data Availability: All data are publicly available from the sources indicated in the text.

Reviews the book "Computer Simulation and Modeling: An Introduction," by Richard S. Lehman.

Reviews the book "Economic Accounting and Development Planning," by Brian Van Arkadie and Charles R. Frank.

Reviews the book "Conceptual Framework for Financial Accounting and Reporting: Present and Future," edited by Joe J. Cramer and Charles A. Neyhart.

This paper examines how the external information environment in which foreign subsidiaries operate affects the investment decisions of multinational corporations (MNCs). We hypothesize and find that the investment decisions of foreign subsidiaries in country-industries with more transparent information environments are more responsive to local growth opportunities than are those of foreign subsidiaries in country-industries with less transparent information environments. Further, this effect is larger when (1) there are greater cross-border frictions between the parent and subsidiary, and (2) the parents are relatively more involved in their subsidiaries' investment decision-making process. Our results suggest that the external information environment helps mitigate the agency problems that arise when firms expand their operations across borders. This paper contributes to the literature by showing that the external information environment helps MNCs mitigate information frictions within the firm. JEL Classifications: D83; G31; M41. Data Availability: Data are available from public sources identified in the paper.