Journal Article The Quantitative Aspect of the British Population Problem—A Survey Get access E. Grebenik E. Grebenik London Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 10, Issue 1, Winter 1942, Pages 43–52, https://doi.org/10.2307/2967494 Published: 01 December 1942
Journal Article Wartime Concentration of British Industry Get access Mary E. Murphy Mary E. Murphy Hunter College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 57, Issue 1, November 1942, Pages 129–141, https://doi.org/10.2307/1881816 Published: 01 November 1942
Cost analysis in electric-utility accounting has been somewhat neglected in the U.S. The common attitude has been that since there is only one product in most cases, the determination of cost per kilowatt-hour at various points in the generative and distributive process is as far as cost analysis need go. Many of the larger private and municipal utilities, however, have given serious attention to the possibilities of more extensive cost analysis. The estimates of the detail of expenses at various levels of output need to be studied to show which items were fixed and semi-fixed, and which could be more properly classed as variable. Since in an electric utility the productive capacity required is that necessary to take care of the peak load (with a reasonable margin of safety), it is a simple matter to reason that those customers who demand service at the time of the peak should bear the capacity costs in proportion to their respective demands at that time. They are the customers who are responsible for the peak and the advocates of the method hold that such customers should bear the costs of providing and maintaining the necessary capacity.
At a Chicago, Illinois, meeting in 1926 one session was a roundtable on examinations in elementary accounting and the interest displayed in that program suggested that further discussion of the same topic would be welcomed. This session is therefore devoted to the subject of examinations but will consider examinations at the different levels, elementary accounting, advanced accounting, and the postgraduate C.P.A. examinations. At the Chicago meeting considerable interest was disclosed in the subject of objective examinations in elementary accounting, and it seemed at that time that the department at Minnesota had gone farther than most departments in the use of such examinations. President of the association has therefore asked the author to have a member of the staff present some materials, which they have developed in that form. A good many instructors still feel skeptical about the adaptability of this form to the held of accounting and it is hoped that this discussion will give some idea of the various types of questions which may be used and how the usual criticisms against this form may be eliminated. Objective questions are more difficult to prepare than problems and it takes a number of years of experimentation and improvement to obtain satisfactory questions and to remove flaws which necessarily appear in first attempts in this direction.