IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/aelcon/v10y2020i1p17n1.html

Is Accounting an Information Science?

Author

Listed:
  • Fellingham John

    (Ohio State University, Columbus, USA)

  • Lin Haijin

    (University of Houston, Houston, USA)

Abstract

The central result is an equality connecting accounting numbers with information. ln1+incomeassets=rf+IX;Y\ln \left( 1+\frac{income}{assets}\right) =r_{f}+I\left( X;Y\right), rfr_{f} is the risk free rate, lnln is the natural logarithm, YY is the outcome of interest, XX is the information signal about YY, and I(X;Y)I(X;Y) is a Shannon information measure. The equality is derived using economic income accounting; it is shown to hold, under appropriate conditions, for declining balance and straight line depreciation methods. Some social welfare implications are explored.

Suggested Citation

  • Fellingham John & Lin Haijin, 2020. "Is Accounting an Information Science?," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-17, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bpj:aelcon:v:10:y:2020:i:1:p:17:n:1
    DOI: 10.1515/ael-2016-0026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/ael-2016-0026
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/ael-2016-0026?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Littleton A. Charles, 2011. "Economists and Accountants," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 1(2), pages 1-11, June.
    2. Arya, Anil & Fellingham, John & Glover, Jonathan, 1997. "Teams, repeated tasks, and implicit incentives," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 7-30, May.
    3. Rogerson, William P, 1997. "Intertemporal Cost Allocation and Managerial Investment Incentives: A Theory Explaining the Use of Economic Value Added as a Performance Measure," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(4), pages 770-795, August.
    4. Steve Ross, 2015. "The Recovery Theorem," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(2), pages 615-648, April.
    5. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    6. Lev, B & Theil, H, 1978. "Maximum Entropy Approach To The Choice Of Asset Depreciation," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(2), pages 286-293.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chu-Shiu Li, 2005. "Risk Signaling in the Health Insurance Market," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 4(1), pages 45-52, April.
    2. Tisdell, Clem, 2014. "Information Technology's Impacts on Productivity, Welfare and Social Change: Second Version," Economic Theory, Applications and Issues Working Papers 195701, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    3. Michael R. CARTER & Alain de JANVRY & Elisabeth SADOULET & Alexandros SARRIS, 2014. "Index-based weather insurance for developing countries: A review of evidence and a set of propositions for up-scaling," Working Papers P111, FERDI.
    4. Sevcan Yesiltas, 2009. "Financing Constraints and Investment: The Case of Turkish Manufacturing Firms," 2009 Meeting Papers 874, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    5. Konduru, Srinivasa & Kalaitzandonakes, Nicholas G. & Magnier, Alexandre, 2009. "GMO Testing Strategies and Implications for Trade: A Game Theoretic Approach," 2009 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, 2009, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 49594, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    6. König, Philipp J. & Pothier, David, 2018. "Safe but fragile: Information acquisition, sponsor support and shadow bank runs," Discussion Papers 15/2018, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    7. Reynolds, Travis & Kolodinsky, Jane & Murray, Byron, 2012. "Consumer preferences and willingness to pay for compact fluorescent lighting: Policy implications for energy efficiency promotion in Saint Lucia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 712-722.
    8. Ginger Zhe Jin & Andrew Kato & John A. List, 2010. "That’S News To Me! Information Revelation In Professional Certification Markets," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 48(1), pages 104-122, January.
    9. Luigino Bruni & Pier Luigi Porta, 2016. "Happiness and quality of life reconciled," Chapters, in: Luigino Bruni & Pier Luigi Porta (ed.), Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Happiness and Quality of Life, chapter 1, pages 1-19, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Sukumar Vellakkal, 2013. "Determinants of Enrolment in Voluntary Health Insurance: Evidences from a Mixed Method Study, Kerala, India," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 4(2), pages 99-107, April.
    11. Loncarski, I. & Ter Horst, J.R. & Veld, C.H., 2006. "Why do Companies issue Convertible Bond Loans? An Empirical Analysis for the Canadian Market," Discussion Paper 2006-65, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    12. Alessandro Morselli, 2024. "The Conventionalist Approach in the Analysis of Unemployment," HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2024(2), pages 149-161.
    13. Michael A. Arnold & Joshua M. Duke & Kent D. Messer, 2013. "Adverse Selection in Reverse Auctions for Ecosystem Services," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 89(3), pages 387-412.
    14. Madhav V. Rajan & Stefan Reichelstein & Mark T. Soliman, 2007. "Conservatism, growth, and return on investment," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 325-370, September.
    15. Ritu Agarwal & Michelle Dugas & Guodong (Gordon) Gao & P. K. Kannan, 2020. "Emerging technologies and analytics for a new era of value-centered marketing in healthcare," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 9-23, January.
    16. Villas-Boas, Sofia B, 2020. "Reduced Form Evidence on Belief Updating Under Asymmetric Information," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt08c456vk, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    17. Yaofeng Fu & Ruokun Huang & Yiran Sheng, 2017. "Labor Contract Law -An Economic View," Papers 1702.03977, arXiv.org.
    18. Jonathan Libgober, 2025. "Identifying Wisdom (of the Crowd): A Regression Approach," Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(4), pages 798-826.
    19. Mariana Carrera & Sofia Villas-Boas, 2023. "Generic Aversion and Observational Learning in the Over-the-Counter Drug Market," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 380-410, July.
    20. Eunsoo Kim & Suyon Kim & Jaehong Lee, 2021. "Do Foreign Investors Affect Carbon Emission Disclosure? Evidence from South Korea," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-14, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:aelcon:v:10:y:2020:i:1:p:17:n:1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyterbrill.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.