Financial Statements and Positive Accounting Theory: The Early Contribution of Aldo Amaduzzi

Andrea Melis

Accounting History Review, 2007, vol. 17, issue 1, 53-62

Abstract: This paper examines some of the accounting ideas that were developed in the late 1940s by an Italian professor, Aldo Amaduzzi, with regards to positive accounting studies and the content of financial statements. The paper briefly reviews the aim, methodological assumptions and key findings of the so-called 'positive accounting theory' based on the works of the Rochester school of accounting. A content analysis of the early work of Amaduzzi, in relation to his view that the contents of financial statements can be seen as the equilibrium outcome of a conflict of interests between corporate stakeholders, shows that many of the methodological issues on accounting theory stressed by the 'Rochester school of accounting' were raised by Amaduzzi (1947, 1949). The paper concludes that although some key differences between the two approaches do exist, Amaduzzi may be considered as a forerunner of positive accounting theory.

Keywords: Positive accounting theory; accounting history; financial statements; conflict of interests; Italy; stakeholder theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585200601127640 (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:taf:acbsfi:v:17:y:2007:i:1:p:53-62

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rabf21

DOI: 10.1080/09585200601127640

Access Statistics for this article

Accounting History Review is currently edited by Stephen Walker

More articles in Accounting History Review from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().