Debt Finance and Capital Maintenance in Current Cost Accounting

The proper treatment of debt finance in current cost accounting has been the subject of considerable debate in the literature, and there is considerable variation in the official standards issued in different countries. Opposition to making a'gearing adjustment'against income seems to be due in part to doubts as to whether or not such treatment is compatible with physical capital maintenance. This article considers the financing implications of treating debt in this fashion in an entity (a) whose revenue is set at a level to ensure that replacement and financing costs are just covered and (b) which renders accounts on a discounted present value basis. It is shown that as long as debt is treated in a fashion consistent with the concept of'real income'employed there is no problem.     

Trade-Offs Between Purchased Services and Time in Single-Parent and Two-Parent Families

This research examines the influence of marital status on the demand for services using a model in which the demand for market services and mothers' time spent in related household activities are jointly determined. Three specific areas of market services are investigated: meals prepared away from home, child care, and housekeeping. In multivariate systems analyses in which mothers' household work time and purchased services were simultaneously determined, families headed by single mothers were found to (a) purchase more meals prepared away from home and (b) be more likely to purchase child care and housekeeping services than their two-parent counterparts holding income and other factors constant.     

On the Relationship between Inflation Persistence and Temporal Aggregation

This paper examines the impact of temporal aggregation on alternative definitions of inflation persistence. Using the CPI and the core PCE deflator of the United States, our results show that temporal aggregation from the monthly to the quarterly to the annual frequency induces persistence in the inflation series.     

STRATEGIC GROUPS AND RIVALROUS FIRM BEHAVIOR: TOWARDS A RECONCILIATION

This research examines the question of whether rivalry is greater between or within strategic groups by utilizing more direct, dynamic and fine-grained measures of rivalry. Examining the competitive actions of firms in different strategic groups to determine if competitive responses were more likely to occur from firms in the same strategic group, or from firms in different strategic groups, the research found that competitive responses cannot be predicted by strategic group membership. Importantly, however, strategic group membership is a predictor of the manner by which firms compete with one another, or the frequency with which they undertake competitive actions, cut prices, instigate warfare and imitate rivals. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Revenue Recognition in the Construction Industry: An Experimental Study

There have been suggestions that loan officers do not consider there is a problem in the availability of alternative revenue recognition methods, provided that sufficient disclosure of recognition procedures is made to enable adjustment of financial statements. On the other hand, the accounting literature on'functional fixity' suggests such adjustments are not made. The functional fixity literature has relied exclusively on testing for an accounting method effect on user predictions and decisions. As a result, the evidence can be interpreted as users being fixated on earnings and ignoring information about accounting methods or alternatively they may have given attention to that information and attempted a transformation although the extent of the adjustment was'inadequate'. This paper suggests that the previous evidence on functional fixity is inconclusive about lenders' suggestions that they adjust financial statements and that different actions may be required by lending institutions depending on which interpretation of the functional fixity literature is made. This study uses the joint methodologies of analysis of variance and protocol analysis to focus on both whether adjustments are made as well as whether alternative methods of recognizing profit from longterm contracts affect the judgements of experienced lenders. The results show that the majority of subjects did not attempt to adjust for alternative methods of recognizing revenues.     

The CCA Depreciation Problem — An Analysis and Proposal*

The question of Depreciation is one upon which so many articles have been written, and so many opinions expressed, that there would not appear to be much more which could profitably be said upon the subject. (John H. Armstrong, The Accountant, 8 August 1903.)     

ACCRUAL MANAGEMENT TO MEET EARNINGS TARGETS: UK EVIDENCE PRE- AND POST-CADBURY

Central to both the Cadbury Committee’s initial remit and its subsequent recommendations is the view that director integrity and board effectiveness play key roles in ensuring the quality and reliability of published financial statements. Using a constant sample, this paper tests whether the association between board composition and earnings management activity differs between the pre- and post-Cadbury periods. Earnings management is measured by the use of income-increasing abnormal accruals when unmanaged earnings undershoot target earnings. Results provide evidence of accrual management to meet earnings targets in both periods. However, while we find no evidence of an association between the degree of accrual management and the composition of the board of directors in the pre-Cadbury period, results for the post-Cadbury period indicate less income-increasing accrual management to avoid earnings losses or earnings declines when the proportion of non-executive directors is high. These results are consistent with the view that appropriately structured boards are discharging their financial reporting duties more effectively post-Cadbury.