Journal Article The Generalised Theory of Consumer's Surplus Get access J. R. Hicks J. R. Hicks Oxford Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 13, Issue 2, 1945, Pages 68–74, https://doi.org/10.2307/2296037 Published: 01 September 1945

The article presents information on employee stock options. It is common practice for many corporations, when negotiating an employment contract with an administrative officer, to grant the employee an option to purchase a designated number of shares in the corporation which employs him. Occasionally the option is exercisable immediately for the full number of shares agreed upon, but more often the contract provides that only a limited number of shares can be acquired each year or that the option can not be exercised until a given period of time has elapsed. Some option agreements have no limit upon their life but others lapse unless exercised by a specified date. The tendency is to make the option nontransferable, although even at this point no uniform pattern is discernible. Some options are assignable, while others are not. The option most favorable to the officer employee establishes an option price for the stock at a figure somewhat below the then existing market price. In this instance the option may have an immediate realizable value. This is particularly true if it is assignable or can be exercised immediately.

Reviews the book "Here Comes Tomorrow," by A.W. Zelomek.

Reviews the book "Price Making in a Democracy," by Edwin G. Nourse.

The article presents information on the standards for certified public accountant (CPA) legislation. The wide diversity which still exists among state CPA laws and regulations indicates the need for future changes. Many of these changes will probably come about through regulations established by the state boards of accountancy. Others must of necessity be accomplished by action of state legislatures. There is an especial need to solve the problems of interstate practice, restrictive legislation and education for the profession. It is desirable that improvements be made in other sections also in order that legislative and administrative requirements shall be as uniform as possible at a high standard throughout the United States. Efforts to improve CPA legislation have taken three forms: (1) the expression of approval or disapproval of the state laws in connection with admitting certificate holders to membership in national accounting organizations, (2) the adoption of uniform examinations for candidates and (3) the preparation of model legislation.

The article presents information on accounting administration of unemployment insurance. The social security act does not prescribe the type of administration that any state should establish; however, certain minimum requirements had to be fulfilled before the Board would approve a state law. This leeway in the Federal law allowed each state an opportunity to select an administrative agency in harmony with its peculiar needs, fitted into the composition of the state government and the demands of local public opinion and adapted to the plan of administering other state labor laws. A review of the essential functions indicates clearly the heavy burden resting upon the administrative units for the successful carrying out of the purposes of unemployment compensation legislation. One of the early functions is the establishment and maintenance of an adequate public relations and information service. Interpretation and clarification of the state law becomes an important task of the administrative agency. Office management, planning and supervision of the budget are also duties of administration. Forms must be drafted; reporting procedures must be determined; accounting equipment and records must be selected and proper routines for the collection, recording and processing of information must be established.

The article presents information on accounting for depreciation. Depreciation may be defined as an accounting cost which is arrived at by the use of methods which do not "attempt to measure the exhaustion which actually takes place within a given period," we thereby divorce the depreciation problem from the everyday world of business experience in which managerial decisions are made. Unquestionably, managements in their selection of depreciation methods have sometimes had purposes in mind other than an accurate accounting for depreciation. They have sometimes been motivated by an undue regard for financial conservatism. Even aside from the selection of methods, their depreciation policies have sometimes brought accounting results which have been positive misrepresentations of the facts. However, the accounting profession cannot afford to countenance such practices and still less can accountants afford to make them a basis for their own analysis of the problem of depreciation. The fact that managements have used methods of depreciation with different ends in view does not mean that the different methods rest upon basically different assumptions.

Charles F. Roos, Leonid Hurwicz, Benjamin Higgins, Tjalling Koopmans, Everett E. Hagen, K. G. Fuller, L. R. Nienstaedt, Jacob Marshak, Forecasting Postwar Demand: Discussion, Econometrica, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Jan., 1945), pp. 54-59