WANTED - FOUNDATIONS OF ACCOUNTING MEASUREMENT

The Symposium examines fundamentals of accounting measurement - the elusive foundations researchers and practitioners have sought for decades in developing an optimal accounting system reporting all assets and liabilities. Currently the system uses a mixed set of attributes (costs, market prices, and estimates, of various types). Market based valuations have taken many forms: e.g. exit price (selling); entry price (replacement price); deprival value (DV), fair value accounting (FV). Nearly fi fty years after those measurement ideas were fi rst placed on the professional agenda, the issue of accounting measurement remains contentious. This is particularly so in the context of the implementation of market measures (FVs) in many of the IFRSs and the contemporary allegations that mark-to-market valuations have fuelled the 2007-09 global fi nancial crisis.