Reviews the book "Accounting Information on Business Decisions: A Simulation," by Jack Gray, Kenneth S. Johnston, John J. Willingham and R. Gene Brown.

Reviews the book "Managerial Statistics," 2nd ed., by Kermit O. Hanson and George J. Brabb.

Roland E. Dukes, Thomas R. Dyckman, John A. Elliott, [Discussion of The Economic Effects of Involuntary Uniformity in the Financial Reporting of R&D Expenditures and Accounting for Research and Development Costs: The Impact on Research and Development Expenditures]: A Reply, Journal of Accounting Research, Vol. 18, Studies on Economic Consequences of Financial and Managerial Accounting: Effects on Corporate Incentives and Decisions (1980), pp. 91-95

In October 1974, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued FASB Statement No. 2, Accounting for Research and Development Costs (henceforth FAS2). The essence of the mandated accounting treatment is stated in paragraph 12 of the Statement: All research and development [R&D] costs encompassed by this Statement shall be charged to expense when incurred. This accounting treatment was contrary to the practice followed by many firms which capitalized and amortized R&D costs. The Board's definition of R&D costs is quite inclusive following, with some modifications, the commonly used interpretation by the National Science Foundation. The Board defines R&D, in paragraph 8, as follows:

* Professor, Cornell University; t Professor, Rice University. We wish to thank our colleagues and particularly Professors William H. Beaver and Joel Demski, both of Stanford University, and Robert J. Swieringa, Cornell University, for their careful reading of this long manuscript and the substantive improvements they suggested. The limitations and omissions remain our responsibility. 1 Given at the 1970 Annual Meeting of the American Accounting Association, the poem, if such is a valid description, was composed by the first editor of JAR, David Green, and published in JAR [1970] with appropriate disclaimers.

Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Citation OTHMAR W. WINKLER, THOMAS R. DYCKMAN; Interpreting Economic and Social Data: A Foundation of Descriptive Statistics. The Accounting Review 1 September 2010; 85 (5): 1820–1822. https://doi.org/10.2308/accr.2010.85.5.1820 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentThe Accounting Review Search Advanced Search