The article examines various aspects of the concept of replacement value accounting. Replacement value theory is a particular measurement concept employed in ascertaining what constitutes that maintenance of a capital for the entire entity. Income is the residual that exists after capital is maintained in that sense dictated by this special measurement concept. In some cases it is possible that the capital to be maintained is measured in terms of current replacement costs. Historical cost accounting and the general or specific price level adjustments to it are restricted in the amount of their charges against revenue to the historical or price-level adjusted historical costs of those assets which the entity presently holds. In order to provide a detailed contrast with the price-level adjustments, it is necessary to leave the conceptual level of replacement-value accounting. However, whenever the individual-asset-and-liability-levels are selected for the purposes of brief comparisons, certain simplifying assumptions are required.

The achievement of accounting objectives is predicated upon successive means-ends combinations accommodated by and implicit in this environment. A singularly important accounting goal is the measurement of periodic income of a business enterprise. This action, measurement, should begin with the measurer's understanding of a conceptual definition of income-one which clearly identifies those qualitative attributes of which income consists. The conversion of this type of conceptual formulation into an operational proposition presupposes the existence of broad purposes that underlie the general process of accounting measurement as well as the specific purposes which more uniquely condition income measurements; these purposes manifest themselves in the form of reactor elements (operators) that facilitate the systematic translation of conceptual expressions into operational definitions. It is assumed that the structure of the process by which the accountant is able to resolve each of these specific income determination problems is not unlike the structure of any other human problem-solving activity, and that examination of this applied problem-solving in appropriately general form may illumine, at least partially, the relevant metatheoretical structure elements and relationships.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 27-05, Section: A, page: 1181.