Accounting Rules and "The Accounting Establishment"

Abstract

Certified public accounting involves the expression of an opinion that corporate financial statements present fairly the financial positions of firms in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles applied on a basis consistent with that of the preceding year. Accounting (as opposed to auditing) standards are promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and help define what information must be revealed in audited financial reports of public corporations. The FASB is operated by the Financial Accounting Foundation, a nonprofit corporation organized by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and cosponsored by five other private interest groups. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has generally recognized and endorsed the determinations of the FASB and predecessor organizations. The process by which accounting rules are established has recurrently been and is now the object of intense public scrutiny. In its recent staff report (1976),' the Senate Government Operations Subcommittee on Reports, AccountThis paper reports the results of two statistical tests for association between the positions taken by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and individual accounting firms with regard to accounting standards and the positions expressed by the interest groups with which each deals. We find a positive, although statistically insignificant, association between client preferences and the likelihood that an auditor will support a rule. The likelihood of FASB support for a rule is found to vary directly and significantly with the strength of FASB sponsoring-organization and accounting-firm preferences.