The development of cost accounting in France: the engineering contribution

Mohsen Souissi

Global Business and Economics Review, 2005, vol. 7, issue 4, 381-389

Abstract: Conventional wisdom argues that cost accounting did not develop until the late 1880s, a period referred to as the costing renaissance. This paper seeks to challenge this view, based on writings on cost accounting undertaken in the 19th century by French writers. In addition, the paper aims to shed light on the importance of the engineers' contribution to the development of cost accounting in the 19th and 20th century in France. The study also highlights how French writers, mainly those graduated from French engineering schools, discussed the issues of overhead allocation, depreciation, transfer prices and the distinction between fixed and variable costs long before these issues were discussed in Anglo-Saxon analysis.

Keywords: accounting history; French accounting; engineers; cost accounting; France; overhead allocation; depreciation; transfer prices; fixed costs; variable costs; engineering. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=8297 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:gbusec:v:7:y:2005:i:4:p:381-389

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Global Business and Economics Review from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().