Ethics and Accounting Policymaking: The Economic Consequences Issue
type: CreativeWork
description: The issue as to whether accounting standards should be chosen for the consequences they will effect as opposed to the faithfulness of their resulting representations has been an area of much controversy for accounting policymakers. This thesis attempts to resolve the issue through an analysis of the ethical basis of the positions for and against the consideration of economic consequences. After discussing three schools of ethical thought, exposing the consistency therewith of positions taken on the economic consequences issue, and then developing the three schools in the accounting policymaking context, the centuries of debate in the ethics literature is brought to bear in the accounting policymaking context. The conclusion is reached that accounting policymakers have a deontological type obligation to pursue representational faithfulness, as opposed to specific economic consequences, through their policies.
abstract: The issue as to whether accounting standards should be chosen for the consequences they will effect as opposed to the faithfulness of their resulting representations has been an area of much controversy for accounting policymakers. This thesis attempts to resolve the issue through an analysis of the ethical basis of the positions for and against the consideration of economic consequences. After discussing three schools of ethical thought, exposing the consistency therewith of positions taken on the economic consequences issue, and then developing the three schools in the accounting policymaking context, the centuries of debate in the ethics literature is brought to bear in the accounting policymaking context. The conclusion is reached that accounting policymakers have a deontological type obligation to pursue representational faithfulness, as opposed to specific economic consequences, through their policies.
author: Ruland, Robert George
keywords: Business Administration, Accounting
date published: 2014-12-16T06:41:06Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:26:04Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/71371