A Modest Proposal for the Return of Historic Cost Accounting

Abstract

The efforts to find a generally acceptable answer to the problem of accounting for inflation continue unabated. The purpose of this article is to suggest that the answer may lie in recognising inflation as an historical fact which should be and ought always to have been recorded as such in the books and accounts of all businesses. I cannot help feeling that had Luci Pacioli been alive he would have approved and indeed that had he been faced with this curse of modern society he would have incorporated an inflation adjustment in his basic book‐keeping records.

Citation

Lynch, T.D. (1978), "A Modest Proposal for the Return of Historic Cost Accounting", Management Decision, Vol. 16 No. 8, pp. 479-488. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb001175