Wolfgang F. Stolper, Paul A. Samuelson; Protection and Real Wages, The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 9, Issue 1, 1 November 1941, Pages 58–73, https://doi.

Abstract With acquisition and disposition prices measuring both the efforts to produce results and the results produced, the principal concern of accounting is the periodic matching of costs and revenues as a test reading by which to gauge the effects of the efforts expended. This concept of "matched costs and revenues" is the main concept discussed here. The standard is simple indeed in its nature: to get a true picture of periodic results of operations, there must be charged against revenues received the actual cost incurred in the process of receiving these revenues. Before the two elements can be "matched," they must be put in some common form so that they will be comparable. The elements are both expressed, therefore, as "price-aggregates." But although costs are handled as price-aggregates it is not just to speak of them as merely price-aggregates. Costs are in reality a measure of efforts expended to produce a product. In the same way it is not enough to speak of revenues as mere price-aggregates; but they must be viewed as a measure of business accomplishment.

Abstract The U.S. Investment Company Act of 1940 brings one more branch of private finance within the fold of governmental regulation. The accounting provisions of the Investment Company Act do not ignore the specific weaknesses which were disclosed in the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) study of the industry. The Act emphasizes the public aspects of investment company accounting and reporting practices and in most cases leaves to the SEC the drafting of definite standards to correct known weaknesses. Many of the sections of the Investment Company Act touch upon accounting practices and reports, and numerous financial practices are permitted only if certain tests are satisfactorily met. Such tests are usually based upon the results shown by accounting reports. The impression created by the accounting provisions of the Investment Company Act is that investment accounting and reporting standards are improving, and that the function of the SEC is first to bring the stragglers up to the minimum found adequate for investors, and then to encourage improvements. These aims will require numerous rules and regulations.