The term sounds like a reference to the simple business event of one business combining with another. A perceptive look at the process of combining, however, reveals a series of complex problems, accounting and otherwise. Valuation and disposition of intangible assets are inherent in almost every combination as are the problems of specific asset revaluations and price level adjustments; usually differences between tax accounting and general accounting arise. Unfortunately, these problems all appear simultaneously and beg for answers. The accounting profession's interest in business combinations is, in part, evidenced by Accounting Research Bulletins 40, 43, and 481; these necessarily lack the color provided in the following description:
Journal Article Optimal Investment and Technical Progress Get access S. Chakravarty S. Chakravarty Delhi University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 31, Issue 3, June 1964, Pages 203–206, https://doi.org/10.2307/2295909 Published: 01 June 1964
This paper gives a non-linear growth model, which explains the development of an economy through stages somewhat similar to the Rostovian stages. Non-linearity is introduced by including the inaugmentable factor of land or natural resources in the production function along with labor and capital, and by recognising that net saving is not a linear homogeneous function of income alone, but might be affected by the distribution of income and the interest rate and tends to be negative when per capita income is very low. Furthermore, population growth is assumed to follow a NeoMalthusian pattern. The effects of non-neutral as well as neutral technical progress are discussed in this paper.
The Review of Economics and Statistics196446(2), 131
good deal of emphasis has also been placed, however, on the claimed benefits of such a shift to the United States balance-of-payments position. For example, the CED statement goes on to say that, A major advantage of a general excise tax is that it would tend to improve the ability of the United States to compete with others in world markets. This view assumes that the direct tax that is cut is the corporate profits tax and that a cut in it reduces prices of corporate output. The present paper calls to attention some influences that are frequently neglected in appraising the effects of such a shift on the balance of payments when these assumptions are valid. It then considers the effects of a cut in corporate taxes that does not reduce prices. Finally, it considers the balance-of-payments effects of making the cut in direct taxes in the individual income tax.