Paradox, accounting values, and intelligible regulation

Abstract

Expected utility theory, which includes estimating the probabilities of uncertain future outcomes, is the classical model for rational economic decision making, and, by implication, rational valuation and financial reporting regulation. In Wittgensteinian terms it is a ‘hinge’ of the language game in which these practices are embedded. When rendered explicit, however, this ‘hinge’ appears to be formally incoherent. The exploration of this problem has consequences for all of our arguments over the epistemological underpinnings of accounting reports – whether realist, representational, constructivist, or otherwise.