Journal Article Labour for The War Industries: The Experience of Coventry Get access A. Shenfield, A. Shenfield Birmingham Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar P. Sargant Florence P. Sargant Florence Birmingham Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 12, Issue 1, 1944, Pages 31–49, https://doi.org/10.2307/2296012 Published: 01 January 1944
Journal Article The Economies and Diseconomies of Industrial Concentration: The Wartime Experience of Coventry Get access A. Shenfield, A. Shenfield Birmingham Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar P. Sargant Florence P. Sargant Florence Birmingham Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 12, Issue 2, 1944, Pages 79–99, https://doi.org/10.2307/2296092 Published: 01 September 1944
Abstract A study of authorities in the U.S. and Great Britain leaves much to be desired as regards the exact procedure to be followed in incorporating the results of foreign branch transactions on the books of the home office. It is evident that several variants in procedure are possible. The simplest arrangement for recording branch and home office relationships is the use of one account current in each record The home office Branch Current account will show in domestic currency the amount of the home office investment in the branch and the Home Office Current account in the branch ledger will show the home office proprietorship or residual liability of the branch to the home office stated in foreign currency. The credit balance in the Home Office Current account represents net assets whose various debit balances may have arisen under various exchange conditions and been converted into terms of domestic currency at various rates. Substitution of the balance of the Branch Current account for the balance of the Home Office Current account would be easier and more effective than conversion of the balance of the latter account.
Abstract In recording of transactions and preparation of periodical statements, accountants are supposed to be governed by accounting principles and accountants' certificates which usually include an expression to the effect that the statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. And yet there is nowhere a compilation or code of accounting principles. Accountants' reports provide ample evidence that accounting is not controlled by a body of principles which result in uniformity of procedure and treatment. In the first place, many rules and procedures of accounting are not of a fundamental nature. In the second place, principles, principles cannot be established in accounting by experimentation or by authoritative pronouncements. In the third place, it is not desirable that accounting procedures should be reduced to a rigid uniformity by any detailed statement of conventions and rules. Accountancy must meet varying requirements of different businesses operating under differing conditions and must be prepared to adjust itself to changes in the economic system.
Abstract The article presents information on merchandise turnover and the method of computing it. Data and statements are of limited usefulness unless they are properly interpreted. To assist and facilitate interpretation, particularly of the balance sheet and income statement, various ratio and percentage analyses frequently are made a part of, or appended to, these reports. One of the most significant of these ratios to merchandising businesses is the one that shows the average number of times the inventory was replaced during a given period. It is usually called merchandise turnover or stock-turn. The customary method of computing inventory turnover is to divide the total cost of goods sold by the average value of goods on hand during the period. It is recognized that the turnover figure obtained by the use of the suggested procedure is subject to the same weakness as that secured by the conventional method, in that it will be distorted somewhat if the period under review has been one that included sizable price changes.
Abstract The usefulness to teachers of results of aptitude tests given to their students may easily prove greater than might at first be expected. If a school must limit its enrollment, objective measurements of learning capacity would be a helpful addition to the evidence afforded by previous classroom grades. There are several reasons for thinking that teachers of accounting and colleges of commerce generally should be glad to cooperate in this experiment wherever it is feasible to do so. If the accountant needs a certain type of ability, but little or no mathematical knowledge, it is an open question whether the study of mathematics is the best way to attain that ability. If some other approach will develop the desired ability and at the same time give the student certain knowledge that will also be directly useful in his future work, it is clearly an advantage to follow this course, even if to do so means foregoing the discipline which is part of the study of mathematics.
Abstract Everyone is more or less reconciled to the prospect of a relatively large Federal budget in years ahead. No one expects that taxes will be greatly reduced immediately even if and when the happy day comes which sees free spenders kicked out of seats of authority. But the burden of taxes is not to be described merely in terms of the amount of money collected. The total burden includes the cost of compliance on the part of taxpayers and administrative costs incurred by the government. In constructing a system of taxation a serious effort should be made to minimize this additional burden, the taxpayer should be separated from his money with the least possible bedeviling, harassment, and expense. The system, however, could hardly be worse if deliberately designed to maximize the direct and indirect cost of compliance, and to produce gross inequities to boot. No one is in a position to estimate in dollars the amount of the annual burden which represents a total loss to the national economy in the form of excessive compliance cost, but that this unnecessary load is a serious matter can not be questioned.