Financial Reporting in the UK: A History of the Accounting Standards Committee, 1969-1990 (Routledge Historical Perspectives in Accounting)

Written by a well-known author, this book makes a major contribution to the history of financial reporting, exploring the current and international aspects of standard setting. Compiled through consultation of a considerable amount of relevant literature and interviews with a large number of key players of the ASC, it analyzes the big 'set battles' between standard setters and preparers of financial statements, over topics such as price change accounting, goodwill, and leasing and foreign currency translation, the stand-offs which delayed development in specific areas and the smaller skirmishes which impeded the work of improving financial reporting. It covers a range of topics, including: the formulation of standards on specific topics the evolution of the institutional machinery of standard-setting the politics of standard-setting the theory of accounting standardization the emergence of a conceptual framework for financial reporting. A fine account of the period following the 1960s, charting the history of the Accounting Standards Committee, this book is an essential resource for business and finance students. FM List of Abbreviations 1 Chapter 1 ‘Present Troubles, and More to Come’ 17 Chapter 2 The Invention of the Accounting Standard 38 Chapter 3 Honeymoon Period 64 Chapter 4 Accounting for Changing Prices 107 Chapter 5 The Holy Grail 122 Chapter 6 The Going Gets Tougher 136 Chapter 7 Reforming the System 170 Chapter 8 The Art of the Possible 193 Chapter 9 Accounting for Changing Prices 240 Chapter 10 Losing Steam? 1985–1990 264 Chapter 11 Setting Accounting Standards 1969–1990 309 Notes 331 Appendix 1 Sources 408 Appendix 2 Statement of Intent on Accounting Standards in the 1970s 409 Appendix 3 Extracts from the Watts Report 411 Appendix 4 Chairmen of the Accounting Standards Committee 417 Appendix 5 Secretaries to the Accounting Standards Committee 418 Appendix 6 Members of the Accounting Standards Committee 419 Appendix 7 Statements of Standard Accounting Practice Issued 427 Appendix 8 Exposure Drafts Issued 429 Appendix 9 Submissions on Exposure Drafts 431 Bibliography 434 A History of the Accounting Standards Committee, 1969-1990 "Financial Reporting in the UK argues that the relationship between accounting standards and the 'scandals' they are often seen as responding to is more complex than is generally understood: in particular, although the committee was established to eliminate variety in accounting methods, such variety was implicated to only a limited degree in the scandals generally associated with its establishment."--Jacket This fine account of the period following the 1960s charts the history of the Accounting Standards Committee. Written by a respected scholar, it makes a major contribution to the history of financial reporting.