Accounting is an Evolved Economic Institution

Gregory B. Waymire and Sudipta Basu

Foundations and Trends(R) in Accounting, 2008, vol. 2, issue 1–2, 1-174

Abstract: We develop our paper by defining "accounting history research" and posing six big picture questions about historical accounting evolution. The paper selectively summarizes accounting history over the past ten thousand years, organized around our six questions. This review provides useful examples that we draw upon for subsequent sections, but can also be used as a US accounting history primer. We explain how accounting history can inform scholars studying modern institutions by analyzing several exemplary research papers. The paper discusses numerous empirical studies using archival accounting data and suggests further questions that can build upon and extend published research. Finally, we discuss the implications of our evolutionary perspective for accounting research, and identify numerous research opportunities under each of our six big picture questions that will together help us build a coherent evolutionary theory of accounting.

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Accounting History; Evolutionary economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/1400000011 (application/xml)

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:now:fntacc:1400000011

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Foundations and Trends(R) in Accounting from now publishers
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Lucy Wiseman ().