A Possibilitarian History of Price Change Accounting in the UK: 1971-1985

Brian A. Rutherford

Accounting, Business and Financial History, 2007, vol. 17, issue 2, pages 285-312

Abstract: This paper offers a 'possibilitarian' analysis of the history of price change accounting in the UK, exploring how events might have turned out differently at a number of key nodal points. It argues that a stable current cost accounting regime could have been established significantly before SSAP16 was in fact adopted or, alternately, that the retreat from SSAP16 could have been managed in a way that would have maintained compliance with current cost accounting. Had a substantial period of widespread compliance within a stable regime eventuated, a quite different dynamic might have emerged, including significant user pressure to maintain current cost accounting, thereby underpinning the regime and leading to its long-term survival.

Keywords: Accounting Standards Committee; alternative history; counterfactuals; current cost accounting (search for similar items in EconPapers)

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