This article presents information on the feasibility of utilizing the conference call technique in accounting and related courses at the University of Texas in Austin. The failure of teachers effectively to utilize the services of practitioners can be ascribed to at least two difficulties. First, classroom visits are expensive. A one hour visit to a classroom would normally take up several hours of a guest speaker's time. If extensive travel is required, then the time factor becomes even more significant. Persons in high-level positions may be unable to give even an hour or two of their time. In addition, travel costs themselves may make visits impractical. Second, an instructor may find it unprofitable to devote an entire session to a guest speaker. He might wish to ask questions which would take but a short time to answer, but it is hardly reasonable to expect a visitor to put in a ten-minute appearance. One efficient means of introducing the views of practitioners into the classroom is the use of conference telephone calls. The feasibility of utilizing the conference call technique was recently demonstrated at The University of Texas at Austin.

Reviews the book "The Debate on Inflation Accounting," by David Tweedie and Geoffrey Whittington.

Reviews the book "Inflation Accounting: An Introduction to the Debate," by Geoffrey Whittington.

The original article by the authors was designed to explore the use of regression techniques in an audit environment and to provoke interest in and discussion of alternative approaches to the use of these models. There are, several major issues that must be resolved before the applicability of regression models to auditing can be ascertained fully. Professors Kinney and Bailey have articulated further some of these concerns. Their expansion of the authors' discussion indicates that part of the authors' purpose has been attained. An auditor would most likely use several variables in constructing the regression equation. The regression results were tested for the common problems associated with applications of regression analysis. The Durbin-Watson test was used to test the significance of serial correlation in the residuals. The correlation matrix for the four regressors did indicate multi-colinearity, with correlations in some cases as large as .39. However, omission of any one of the four predictors resulted in substantially larger prediction errors. The major overlap in predictors appeared between the economic series and the growth series. In an audit situation, the appearance of an incorrect account requires the auditor to conduct further investigation to determine whether the reported balance or the auditors estimate of such balance is correct.

This article focuses on how regression analysis, coupled with Bayesian statistical procedures, can be used to provide assistance to auditors in selecting accounts for investigation. Auditors characteristically express their opinion on corporate financial statements on the basis of an examination of only a small portion of the underlying data. Often the auditor relies on little more than informed judgment as to the specific data that he should review. In examining some accounts, notably inventory and accounts receivable, statistical sampling methods are sometimes used to select the data to be studied in detail. Frequently however, the auditor must operate with relatively little guidance as to which particular accounts or subaccounts merit comprehensive review. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how regression analysis, coupled with Bayesian statistical procedures, can be used to provide the auditor with assistance in selecting those accounts for investigation that are most likely to result in significant audit findings.

This article presents comments on an article written by M.E. Francis, published in the April 1973 issue of the journal "The Accounting Review," which contends that accountants are ill-equipped to contribute in a constructive way either to improve the methods of assessing the state of society and social programs or to the application of evaluative procedures in the allocation of resources to the efforts to improve social well-being. The article provides a useful service to the profession by cautioning accountants against jumping upon the social accounting bandwagon without knowing its ultimate destination or their own ability to steer it in an appropriate direction. The argument of Francis against a potential role for accountants is three-fold: accountants lack the expertise to attest to sampling methods and statistical series derived from samples; accountants do not have the knowledge or experience to determine the relevant statistical information to be collected, analyzed, and reported; and accountants lack the statistical training to improve the accuracy of economic data. The accountant, as a member of a team which is likely to include specialists from other disciplines, independently appraises program results and reports his findings to the policy makers. Contrary to the implications of Francis, accountants seldom, if ever, work with numbers that are finitely accurate.

This article describes a taxonomy of cognitive skills which has been designed by a group of educational psychologists and identifies the implications thereof for the development of accounting courses and the accounting curriculum. The taxonomy is designed to give precise direction to the learning process and is expressed in terms of expected student behavior at each level in the accounting program. The primary focus of this paper is on the financial accounting program. The taxonomy is relevant to the development of curriculum in that it reveals the elements in the learning process, orders them in an educationally logical sequence, and helps explain the interrelationships among them. It raises questions not only of what should be taught, but also of when and why it should be taught.