| Abstract: | Although this paper is not a book review, it discusses several recent publications in the area of information economics as applied to accounting. The major books mentioned and compared are those by Christensen and Demski (2003), the two volumes by Christensen and Feltham (2003, 2005), as well as two German books by Ewert and Wagenhofer (1993/ 2003) and Wagenhofer and Ewert (2003). The paper discusses the contrast between the traditional “value approach” and the more recent “information perspective", as well as the major methodological and theoretical tenets of the latter. Additional sections are devoted to “issues beyond the competence of the information perspective", “opposition and criticism” (with such subsections as “resistance to the mathematical‐analytical approach", the “neglect of traditional accounting terminology", and “other objections"), an inquiring section “toward a general theory of accounting", and, finally, a conclusion from a wider angle. |
