In 2017 my Website was migrated to the clouds and reduced in size.
Hence some links below are broken.
One thing to try if a “www” link is broken is to substitute “faculty” for “www”
For example a broken link
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
can be changed to corrected link
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
However in some cases files had to be removed to reduce the size of my Website
Contact me at 
rjensen@trinity.edu if you really need to file that is missing

 

Accounting Researcher Helpers

Bob Jensen is in the Department of Business Administration at TrinityUniversity.
Email: rjensen@trinity.edu

Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter --- Search Box in Upper Right Corner.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron" enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and other universities is at http://www.searchedu.com/

Bob Jensen's Codec Saga: How I Lost a Big Part of My Life's Work
Until My Friend Rick Lillie Solved My Problem
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/VideoCodecProblems.htm

Essays on the State of Accounting Scholarship ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm#Essays

Common Accountics Science and Econometric Science Statistical Mistakes ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsScienceStatisticalMistakes.htm

"Advice on Life and Creative Integrity from Calvin and Hobbes Creator Bill Watterson," by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings, May 20, 2013 ---
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/05/20/bill-watterson-1990-kenyon-speech/

"How Non-Scientific Granulation Can Improve Scientific Accountics"
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsGranulationCurrentDraft.pdf

U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy Now Available (2014 Glossary and XBRL)---
http://www.fasb.org/jsp/FASB/Page/SectionPage&cid=1176163688345

Get Your Sign Values Correct in XBRL Files ---
http://www.aicpa.org/InterestAreas/FRC/AccountingFinancialReporting/XBRL/DownloadableDocuments/XBRL Update 2013 Final.pdf

On January 29, 2014 Julie wrote the following on the AAA Commons:

We have completed our work on the plagiarism policy, and the final version can be found here:

http://aaahq.org/about/manual/current/publications/PlagiarismPolicy.pdf

"A Brief History of Sampling," by Bary Ritholtz, Barry Ritholtz Blog, February 7, 2014 ---
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2014/02/a-brief-history-of-sampling/

Will Yancey's Legacy --- http://www.willyancey.com/
Sampling and Statistics
[ Data Mining | Sampling for Financial and Internal Audits | Sampling for Income Tax and Customs | Sampling for Medicare and Other Claims | Sampling for Sales and Use Tax Audits - States | Sampling for Sales and Use Tax - Review Articles | Sampling Theory and Applications | Sampling for Valuation | Statistical Consulting | Statistical Education and Software | Statistical Evidence in Litigation ]

Common Accountics Science and Econometric Science Statistical Mistakes ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsScienceStatisticalMistakes.htm

Wolfram Alpha Computational Database ---
http://www.wolframalpha.com/

U.S. Census Bureau: Random Samplings --- http://blogs.census.gov/

University of Chicago
National Opinion Research Center: Data and Findings --- http://www.norc.org/Research/DataFindings/Pages/default.asp

Statistics Education Research Journal --- http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications.php?show=serj

Teaching Statistics --- http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications.php?show=serj

Bob Jensen's threads on assessment are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Assess.htm

Some of the best math learning tutorials are free from the Khan Academy --- https://www.khanacademy.org/

Mathematical Association of America: Student Resources --- http://www.maa.org/math-competitions/student-resources

Bob Jensen's threads on free online mathematics tutorials are at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#050421Mathematics

Citations: Two Selected Papers About Academic Accounting Research Subtopics (Topical Areas) and Research Methodologies http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsScienceCitations.htm 


Wolfram Alpha --- http://www.wolframalpha.com/
Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram_Alpha

This is an amazing innovation from one of the all-time geniuses of mathematics and computing
"Computer Genius Builds Language That Lets Anyone Calculate Anything," by Andy Kiersz, Business Insider, March 10, 2014 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/wolfram-language-demo-2014-3 

Controversial mathematician Stephen Wolfram is about to release a programming language with the goal of being able to quickly do just about any calculation or visualization on just about any kind of data a person could want.

Wolfram, creator of the widely used mathematical software Mathematica and the "computational knowledge engine" Wolfram|Alpha, has announced the forthcoming release of the Wolfram Language, the underlying programming language powering those two pieces of software.

Wolfram describes and demos the language in a video posted late last month:---
http://blog.wolfram.com/2014/02/24/starting-to-demo-the-wolfram-language/

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's illustrations about how to use the traditional Wolfram Alpha for both computing and printing of equations ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theorylearningcurves.htm

Jensen Comment
Increasingly professors complain that Wolfram Alpha inhibits learning in mathematics unless assignments, quizzes, and examinations are administered in tightly controlled conditions where students cannot gain access to Wolfram Alpha.

 


ASC = Accounting Standard Codification of the FASB

January 8, 2013 message from Zane Swanson

Another faculty person created a video (link follows)
http://www.screencast.com/t/K8gruSHTv

which introduces the ASC.  This video has potential value at the beginning of the semester to acquaint students with the ASC.  I am thinking about posting the clip to AAA commons.  But, where should it be posted and does this type of thing get posted in multiple interest group areas?

 Any thoughts / suggestions?

Zane Swanson
www.askaref.com a handheld device source of ASC information

Jensen Comment
A disappointment for colleges and students is that access to the Codification database is not free. The FASB does offer deeply discounted prices to colleges but not to individual teachers or students.

There are other access routes that are not free such as the PwC Comperio ---
http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/comperio/index.jhtml

Hi Zane,
 
This is a great video helper for learning how to use the FASB.s Codification database.
 
An enormous disappointment to me is how the Codification omits many, many illustrations in the pre-codification pronouncements that are still available electronically as PDF files. In particular, the best way to learn a very complicated standard like FAS 133 is to study the illustrations in the original FAS 133, FAS 138, etc.
 
The FASB paid a fortune for experts to develop the illustrations in the pre-codification  pronouncements. It's sad that those investments are wasted in the Codification database.
 
What is even worse is that accounting teachers are forgetting to go to the pre-codification pronouncements for wonderful illustrations to use in class and illustrations for CPA exam preparation ---
http://www.fasb.org/jsp/FASB/Page/PreCodSectionPage&cid=1218220137031
 
Sadly the FASB no longer seems to invest as much in illustrations for new pronouncements in the Codification database.

Bob Jensen

 

Examples of great FAS 133 pre-codification illustrations are as follows:

              
[   ] 133ex01a.xls                     12-Jun-2008 03:50  345K  
[   ] 133ex02.doc                      17-Feb-2004 06:00  2.1M  
[   ] 133ex02a.xls                     12-Jun-2008 03:48  279K  
[   ] 133ex03a.xls                     04-Apr-2001 06:45   92K  
[   ] 133ex04a.xls                     12-Jun-2008 03:50  345K  
[TXT] 133ex05.htm                      04-Apr-2001 06:45  371K  
[   ] 133ex05a.xls                     12-Jun-2008 03:49  1.5M  
[TXT] 133ex05aSupplement.htm           26-Mar-2005 13:59   57K  
[   ] 133ex05aSupplement.xls           26-Mar-2005 13:50   32K  
[TXT] 133ex05d.htm                     26-Mar-2005 13:59   56K  
[   ] 133ex06a.xls                     29-Sep-2001 11:43  123K  
[   ] 133ex07a.xls                     08-Mar-2004 16:26  1.2M  
[   ] 133ex08a.xls                     29-Sep-2001 11:43  216K  
[   ] 133ex09a.xls                     12-Jun-2008 03:49   99K  
[   ] 133ex10.doc                      17-Feb-2004 16:37   80K  
[   ] 133ex10a.xls 
[TXT] 133summ.htm                      13-Feb-2004 10:50  121K  
[TXT] 138EXAMPLES.htm                  30-Apr-2004 08:39  355K  
[TXT] 138bench.htm                     07-Dec-2007 05:37  139K  
[   ] 138ex01a.xls                     09-Mar-2001 13:20  1.7M  
[TXT] 138exh01.htm                     09-Mar-2001 13:20   31K  
[TXT] 138exh02.htm                     09-Mar-2001 13:20   65K  
[TXT] 138exh03.htm                     09-Mar-2001 13:20   42K  
[TXT] 138exh04.htm                     09-Mar-2001 13:20  108K  
[TXT] 138exh04a.htm                    09-Mar-2001 13:20  8.2K  
[   ] 138intro.doc                     09-Mar-2001 13:20   95K  
[TXT] 138intro.htm                     09-M

Others --- http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/

Jensen Comment
A disappointment for colleges and students is that access to the Codification database is not free. The FASB does offer deeply discounted prices to colleges but not to individual teachers or students.

There are other access routes that are not free such as the PwC Comperio ---
http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/comperio/index.jhtml


 

The periodic table of data/information visualization:
http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html
Thank you Jagdish Gangolly for the heads up.

Visualization of Multivariate Data (including faces) ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/352wpvisual/000datavisualization.htm 

 

The Sad State of Economic Theory and Research ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm#EconomicResearch 

Common Accountics Science and Econometric Science Statistical Mistakes ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsScienceStatisticalMistakes.htm

How Accountics Scientists Should Change: 
"Frankly, Scarlett, after I get a hit for my resume in The Accounting Review I just don't give a damn"
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
One more mission in what's left of my life will be to try to change this
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm 

Granulation
Obviously correlation is not causation, but don't suggest this too loudly to referees of The Accounting Review ---
An enormous problem with accountics science, and finance in general,  is that these sciences largely confine themselves to databases where it's only possible to establish correlations and not causes, because zero causal information is contained in the big databases they purchase rather than collect themselves ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsGranulationCurrentDraft.pdf

The Cult of Statistical Significance:  How Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives, by Stephen T. Ziliak and Deirdre N. McCloskey (Ann Arbor:  University of Michigan Press, ISBN-13: 978-472-05007-9, 2007)
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm

Page 206
Like scientists today in medical and economic and other sizeless sciences, Pearson mistook a large sample size for the definite, substantive significance---evidence s Hayek put it, of "wholes." But it was as Hayek said "just an illusion." Pearson's columns of sparkling asterisks, though quantitative in appearance and as appealing a is the simple truth of the sky, signified nothing.

In Accountics Science R2 = 0.0004 = (-.02)(-.02) Can Be Deemed a Statistically Significant Linear Relationship ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeirdreMcCloskey/StatisticalSignificance01.htm


From the Harvard Business School:  Working Knowledge --- http://hbswk.hbs.edu/
Topics --- http://hbswk.hbs.edu/topics/
Accounting and Control is listed under Finance --- http://hbswk.hbs.edu/topics/accountingandcontrol.html


Quandl:  over 8 million demographic, economic, and financial datasets from 100s of global sources ---
http://www.quandl.com/


June 5, 2013 reply to a long thread by Bob Jensen

Hi Steve,

As usual, these AECM threads between you, me, and Paul Williams resolve nothing to date. TAR still has zero articles without equations unless such articles are forced upon editors like the Kaplan article was forced upon you as Senior Editor. TAR still has no commentaries about the papers it publishes and the authors make no attempt to communicate and have dialog about their research on the AECM or the AAA Commons.

I do hope that our AECM threads will continue and lead one day to when the top academic research journals do more to both encourage (1) validation (usually by speedy replication), (2) alternate methodologies, (3) more innovative research, and (4) more interactive commentaries.

I remind you that Professor Basu's essay is only one of four essays bundled together in Accounting Horizons on the topic of how to make accounting research, especially the so-called Accounting Sciience or Accountics Science or Cargo Cult science, more innovative.

The four essays in this bundle are summarized and extensively quoted at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm#Essays 

I will try to keep drawing attention to these important essays and spend the rest of my professional life trying to bring accounting research closer to the accounting profession.

I also want to dispel the myth that accountics research is harder than making research discoveries without equations. The hardest research I can imagine (and where I failed) is to make a discovery that has a noteworthy impact on the accounting profession. I always look but never find such discoveries reported in TAR.

The easiest research is to purchase a database and beat it with an econometric stick until something falls out of the clouds. I've searched for years and find very little that has a noteworthy impact on the accounting profession. Quite often there is a noteworthy impact on other members of the Cargo Cult and doctoral students seeking to beat the same data with their sticks. But try to find a practitioner with an interest in these academic accounting discoveries?

Our latest thread leads me to such questions as:

  1. Is accounting research of inferior quality relative to other disciplines like engineering and finance?

     
  2. Are there serious innovation gaps in academic accounting research?

     
  3. Is accounting research stagnant?

     
  4. How can accounting researchers be more innovative?

     
  5. Is there an "absence of dissent" in academic accounting research?

     
  6. Is there an absence of diversity in our top academic accounting research journals and doctoral programs?

     
  7. Is there a serious disinterest (except among the Cargo Cult) and lack of validation in findings reported in our academic accounting research journals, especially TAR?

     
  8. Is there a huge communications gap between academic accounting researchers and those who toil teaching accounting and practicing accounting?

     
  9. Why do our accountics scientists virtually ignore the AECM and the AAA Commons and the Pathways Commission Report?
    http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm

One fall out of this thread is that I've been privately asked to write a paper about such matters. I hope that others will compete with me in thinking and writing about these serious challenges to academic accounting research that never seem to get resolved.

Thank you Steve for sometimes responding in my threads on such issues in the AECM.

Respectfully,
Bob Jensen


Academic Versus Political Reporting of Research:  Percentage Columns Versus Per Capita Columns ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/TaxAirlineSeatCase.htm
by Bob Jensen, April 3, 2013


CGMA Portfolio of Tools for Accountants and Analysts ---
http://www.cgma.org/Resources/Tools/Pages/tools-list.aspx
Includes ethics tools and learning cases.


Deloitte's Site for International Accounting Teaching, Scholarship, and  Research ---
http://www.iasplus.com/en/news/2013/02/research-and-education

We have created a new page on IAS Plus that is tailored to help users easily locate academic accounting material and resources relevant for educational research that is available on IAS Plus and other useful sites.

Bookmark this site ---
http://www.iasplus.com/en/resources/research-and-education

Bob Jensen's helpers for accounting educators ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/default3.htm

Bob Jensen's helpers for accounting researchers ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/default4.htm

Bob Jensen's threads ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm


Reflections on the Last Decade of IFRS Parts 1 and 2 in the free Australian Accounting Review

2012 Volume 22 Issue 3 Special Edition Part 1 on the last decade of IFRS

Capsule Summaries of Part 2
http://www.iasplus.com/en/news/2012/november/10-years-of-ifrs-reflections-and-expectations

2012 Volume 22 Issue 4 Special Edition Part 2 on the last decade of IFRS

Capsule Summaries of Part 2
http://www.iasplus.com/en/news/2013/02/10-years-of-ifrss-ii

Bob Jensen's threads on accounting standard setting controversies
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#MethodsForSetting

 

The Free Australian Accounting Review

  1. 2012 - Volume 22 Australian Accounting Review
  2. 2011 - Volume 21 Australian Accounting Review
  3. 2010 - Volume 20 Australian Accounting Review
  4. 2009 - Volume 19 Australian Accounting Review
  5. 2008 - Volume 18 Australian Accounting Review
  6. 2007 - Volume 17 Australian Accounting Review
  7. 2006 - Volume 16 Australian Accounting Review
  8. 2005 - Volume 15 Australian Accounting Review
  9. 2004 - Volume 14 Australian Accounting Review
  10. 2003 - Volume 13 Australian Accounting Review
  11. 2002 - Volume 12 Australian Accounting Review
  12. 2001 - Volume 11 Australian Accounting Review
  13. 2000 - Volume 10 Australian Accounting Review
  14. 1999 - Volume 9 Australian Accounting Review
  15. 1998 - Volume 8 Australian Accounting Review
  16. 1997 - Volume 7 Australian Accounting Review
  17. 1996 - Volume 6 Australian Accounting Review
  18. 1995 - Volume 5 Australian Accounting Review
  19. 1994 - Volume 4 Australian Accounting Review
  20. 1993 - Volume 3 Australian Accounting Review
  21. 1992 - Volume 1 Australian Accounting Review
  22. 1991 - Volume 1 Australian Accounting Review

MAAW's Accounting Systems for Business Index

Our open sharing retired accounting professor, Jim Martin, who maintains the MAAW Website and Blog made the following posting on August 24, 2013 ---
http://maaw.blogspot.com/

I have developed an index of accounting systems for business to make it easier to find information related to a specific type of business, industry, or activity. I think you will find it interesting and you might also find it useful in your work. It is an ongoing project that I will update on a continuous basis.

http://maaw.blogspot.com/2013/08/accounting-systems-for-business-index.html

Illustrations
Abandonment Losses

Fleck, L. H. 1926. The incidence of abandonment losses. The Accounting Review (June): 48-59. (JSTOR link).

Accounting Changes (Also see Changes)

Hall, J. O. and C. R. Aldridge. 2007. Changes in accounting for changes. Journal of Accountancy (February): 45-50.

Schwieger, B. J. 1977. A summary of accounting for and reporting on accounting changes. The Accounting Review (October): 946-949. (JSTOR link).

Accounting and Business Machines

Gould, S. W. 1935. The application of tabulating and accounting machines to real estate and mortgage accounting procedure. N.A.C.A. Bulletin (November 15): 261-277.

Walker, R. 1947. Synchronized budgeting in the business machine industry. N.A.C.A. Bulletin (August 1): 1453-1470.

Whisler, R. F. 1933. Factory payroll budget of the National Cash Register Company. N.A.C.A. Bulletin (February 1): 853-861.

Woodbridge, J. S. 1959. The inventory concept of accounting as expressed by electronic data-processing machines and applied to international air transportation. N.A.A. Bulletin (October): 5-12. (International airline revenue accounting).

Accounts Receivable Records

Zeigler, N. B. 1938. Accounts receivable records and methods. N.A.C.A. Bulletin (January 15): 581-594.

Activity Based Costing (See MAAW's ABC Topic)

Ad Agency

Mills, W. B. 1983. Drawing up a budgeting system for an ad agency. Management Accounting (December): 46-51, 59.

Webster, K. and C. G. Uffelman. 1957. Cost reporting in an advertising agency. N.A.C.A. Bulletin (March): 899-905.

Advertising (See MAAW's Marketing, Sales and Advertising Topic)

Aerospace

Van Tatenhove, J. M. 1969. Managing indirect costs in the aerospace industry. Management Accounting (September): 36-42, 48.

Affiliates

Paton, W. A. 1945. Transactions between affiliates. The Accounting Review (July): 255-266. (JSTOR link).

. . .

Works

Dunkerley, R. 1926. Engineering costing and works accountancy - Its objects and necessity. N.A.C.A. Bulletin (March 15): 513-521.

World's Fair (Also see Fair)

McCaffrey, G. D. 1939. Accounting control at the New York World's Fair. N.A.C.A. Bulletin (August 1): 1483-1486.

Wrought Iron (Also see Iron)

Jensen, C. G. 1923. Cost problems in the wrought iron industry. National Association of Cost Accountants Official Publications (January 2): 3-18.

Zinc Mine (Also see Mining)

Smith, L. C. 1954. A cost system for a zinc mine. N.A.C.A. Bulletin (September): 37-47.

 

The fantastic MAAW homepage is at ---
http://maaw.info/

 


Deloitte (DTTL) and the International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER) today announced the Deloitte IAAER Scholarship Programme, naming five associate professors from Brazil, Indonesia, Poland, Romania and South Africa as the programme’s inaugural scholars.
IAS Plus
February 13, 2013
http://www.iasplus.com/en/news/2013/02/deloitte-scholars

Mentors will be assigned to each scholar to support them as they increase their exposure to internationally recognised accounting scholars, best practices in accounting and business education and research, and a global peer network.

Ongoing mentorship is a critical element of the Deloitte IAAER Scholarship Programme and some well-known and highly accomplished accounting experts have volunteered their support. These include former member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, Katherine Schipper (Duke University); former member of the International Accounting Standards Board, Mary Barth (Stanford University); Chika Saka (Kwansei Gakuin University); Sidney Gray (University of Sydney); and Ann Tarca (University of Western Australia).

The scholars, who must be a sitting lecturer, assistant, or associate professor holding a PhD (or comparable degree) in a faculty that teaches accounting, auditing, or financial reporting, are chosen for three years and attend IAAER co-sponsored conferences, workshops, and consortia as well as the IAAER World Congress.

In the long term, the programme aims at supporting better accounting education and improving the quality of financial reporting and auditing. The next round of scholarships will open in 2016, with applications considered in 2015.

Bob Jensen's threads on careers in accountancy ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#careers

Bob Jensen's helpers for accounting educators ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/default3.htm

Bob Jensen's helpers for accounting researchers ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/default4.htm

Bob Jensen's threads ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm

 

 


 

Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm

 

Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave  --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
By Bob Jensen

Table of Contents

Accountics Scientists Seeking Truth: 
"Frankly, Scarlett, after I get a hit for my resume in The Accounting Review I just don't give a damn"
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm
One more mission in what's left of my life will be to try to change this
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsDamn.htm 

Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

Gaming for Tenure as an Accounting Professor ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTenure.htm
(with a reply about tenure publication point systems from Linda Kidwell)

"So you want to get a Ph.D.?" by David Wood, BYU ---
http://www.byuaccounting.net/mediawiki/index.php?title=So_you_want_to_get_a_Ph.D.%3F

Do You Want to Teach? ---
http://financialexecutives.blogspot.com/2009/05/do-you-want-to-teach.html

Jensen Comment
Here are some added positives and negatives to consider, especially if you are currently a practicing accountant considering becoming a professor.

Accountancy Doctoral Program Information from Jim Hasselback ---
http://www.jrhasselback.com/AtgDoctInfo.html 

Why must all accounting doctoral programs be social science (particularly econometrics) "accountics" doctoral programs?
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms

What went wrong in accounting/accountics research?
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong

 

AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW: 1926-2005 ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1

Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the vegetable nutrition paradox) that probably will never be solved ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews

A Dual Model for Lease Accounting: 
Redrawing the Lines Into a Brick Wall of Forecasted Lease Renewal Controversy
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/LeaseAccounting.htm

Links to IFRS Resources (including IFRS Cases) for Educators ---
http://www.iasplus.com/en/binary/resource/0808aaaifrsresources.pdf
Prepared by Paul Pacter: ppacter@iasb.org


I'm giving thanks for many things this Thanksgiving Day on November 22, 2012, including our good friends who invited us over to share in their family Thanksgiving dinner. Among the many things for which I'm grateful, I give thanks for accounting fraud. Otherwise there were be a whole lot less for me to study and write about at my Website ---


A Pissing Contest Between Bob and Jagdish:  An Illustration of How to Lie With Statistics ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/LieWithStatistics01.htm


Hi Pat,

Certainly expertise and dedication to students rather than any college degree is what's important in teaching.


However, I would not go so far as to detract from the research (discovery of new knowledge) mission of the university by taking all differential pay incentives away from researchers who, in addition to teaching, are taking on the drudge work and stress of research and refereed publication.


Having said that, I'm no longer in favor of the tenure system since in most instances it's more dysfunctional than functional for long-term research and teaching dedication. In fact, it's become more of an exclusive club that gets away with most anything short of murder.


My concern with accounting and business is how we define "research," Empirical and analytical research that has zero to say about causality is given too much priority in pay, release time, and back slapping.

"How Non-Scientific Granulation Can Improve Scientific Accountics"
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/AccounticsGranulationCurrentDraft.pdf
By Bob Jensen
This essay takes off from the following quotation:

A recent accountics science study suggests that audit firm scandal with respect to someone else's audit may be a reason for changing auditors.
"Audit Quality and Auditor Reputation: Evidence from Japan," by Douglas J. Skinner and Suraj Srinivasan, The Accounting Review, September 2012, Vol. 87, No. 5, pp. 1737-1765.

Our conclusions are subject to two caveats. First, we find that clients switched away from ChuoAoyama in large numbers in Spring 2006, just after Japanese regulators announced the two-month suspension and PwC formed Aarata. While we interpret these events as being a clear and undeniable signal of audit-quality problems at ChuoAoyama, we cannot know for sure what drove these switches (emphasis added). It is possible that the suspension caused firms to switch auditors for reasons unrelated to audit quality. Second, our analysis presumes that audit quality is important to Japanese companies. While we believe this to be the case, especially over the past two decades as Japanese capital markets have evolved to be more like their Western counterparts, it is possible that audit quality is, in general, less important in Japan (emphasis added) .

 

 


"Exploring Accounting Doctoral Program Decline:  Variation and the Search for Antecedents," by Timothy J. Fogarty and Anthony D. Holder, Issues in Accounting Education, May 2012 ---
Not yet posted on June 18, 2012

ABSTRACT
The inadequate supply of new terminally qualified accounting faculty poses a great concern for many accounting faculty and administrators. Although the general downward trajectory has been well observed, more specific information would offer potential insights about causes and continuation. This paper examines change in accounting doctoral student production in the U.S. since 1989 through the use of five-year moving verges. Aggregated on this basis, the downward movement predominates, notwithstanding the schools that began new programs or increased doctoral student production during this time. The results show that larger declines occurred for middle prestige schools, for larger universities, and for public schools. Schools that periodically successfully compete in M.B.A.. program rankings also more likely have diminished in size. of their accounting Ph.D. programs. Despite a recent increase in graduations, data on the population of current doctoral students suggest the continuation of the problems associated with the supply and demand imbalance that exists in this sector of the U.S. academy.

Jensen Comment
This is a useful update on the doctoral program shortages relative to demand for new tenure-track faculty in North American universities. However, it does not suggest any reasons or remedies for this phenomenon.  The accounting doctoral program in many ways defies laws of supply and demand. Accounting faculty are the among the highest paid faculty in rank (except possibly in unionized colleges and universities that are not wage competitive). For suggested causes and remedies of this problem see ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms

Accountancy Doctoral Program Information from Jim Hasselback ---
http://www.jrhasselback.com/AtgDoctInfo.html 

Especially note the table of the entire history of accounting doctoral graduates for all AACSB universities in the U.S. ---
http://www.jrhasselback.com/AtgDoct/XDocChrt.pdf
In that table you can note the rise or decline (almost all declines) for each university.

Links to 91 AACSB University Doctoral Programs ---
http://www.jrhasselback.com/AtgDoct/AtgDoctProg.html

October 8, 2008 message from Amelia Balwin

These are the slides from today's presentations. This is a work on progress. Your comments are welcome, particularly on the design of the surveys.

I am very grateful for the support of this research provided by an Ernst & Young Diversity Grant Award!

 

"So you want to get a Ph.D.?" by David Wood, BYU ---
http://www.byuaccounting.net/mediawiki/index.php?title=So_you_want_to_get_a_Ph.D.%3F

 

"The Accounting Doctoral Shortage: Time for a New Model," by Jerry E. Trapnell, Neal Mero, Jan R. Williams and George W. Krull, Issues in Accounting Education, November 2009 ---
http://aaajournals.org/doi/abs/10.2308/iace.2009.24.4.427

ABSTRACT:
The crisis in supply versus demand for doctorally qualified faculty members in accounting is well documented (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business [AACSB] 2003a, 2003b; Plumlee et al. 2005; Leslie 2008). Little progress has been made in addressing this serious challenge facing the accounting academic community and the accounting profession. Faculty time, institutional incentives, the doctoral model itself, and research diversity are noted as major challenges to making progress on this issue. The authors propose six recommendations, including a new, extramurally funded research program aimed at supporting doctoral students that functions similar to research programs supported by such organizations as the National Science Foundation and other science‐based funding sources. The goal is to create capacity, improve structures for doctoral programs, and provide incentives to enhance doctoral enrollments. This should lead to an increased supply of graduates while also enhancing and supporting broad‐based research outcomes across the accounting landscape, including auditing and tax.

 

Accounting Doctoral Programs

PQ = Professionally Qualified under AACSB standards (seldom in tenure tracks)
AQ = Academically Qualified under AACSB standards

May 3, 2011 message to Barry Rice from Bob Jensen

Hi Barry,

Faculty without doctoral degrees who meet the AACSB PQ standards are still pretty much second class citizens and will find the tenure track hurdles to eventual full professorship very difficult except in colleges that pay poorly at all levels.

There are a number of alternatives for a CPA/CMA looking into AACSB AQ alternatives in in accounting in North American universities:

The best alternative is to enter into a traditional accounting doctoral program at an AACSB university. Virtually all of these in North America are accountics doctoral programs requiring 4-6 years of full time onsite study and research beyond the masters degree. The good news is that these programs generally have free tuition, room, and board allowances. The bad news is that students who have little interest in becoming mathematicians and statisticians and social scientists need not apply --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms 

As a second alternative Central Florida University has an onsite doctoral program that is stronger in the accounting and lighter in the accountics. Kennesaw State University has a three-year executive DBA program that has quant-lite alternatives, but this is only available in accounting to older executives who enter with PQ-accounting qualifications. It also costs nearly $100,000 plus room and board even for Georgia residents. The DBA is also not likely to get the graduate into a R1 research university tenure track.

As a third alternative there are now some online accounting doctoral programs that are quant-lite and only take three years, but these diplomas aren't worth the paper they're written on --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm#CommercialPrograms  Cappella University is a very good online university, but its online accounting doctoral program is nothing more than a glorified online MBA degree that has, to my knowledge, no known accounting researchers teaching in the program. Capella will not reveal its doctoral program faculty to prospective students. I don't think the North American academic job market yet recognizes Capella-type and Nova-type doctorates except in universities that would probably accept the graduates as PQ faculty without a doctorate.

As a fourth alternative there are some of the executive accounting doctoral programs in Europe, especially England, that really don't count for much in the North American job market.

As a fifth alternative, a student can get a three-year non-accounting PhD degree from a quality doctoral program such as an economics or computer science PhD from any of the 100+ top flagship state/provincial universities in North America. Then if the student also has PQ credentials to teach in an accounting program, the PhD graduate can enroll in an accounting part-time "Bridge Program" anointed by the AACSB --- http://www.aacsb.edu/conferences_seminars/seminars/bp.asp 

As a sixth alternative, a student can get a three-year law degree in addition to getting PQ credentials in some areas where lawyers often get into accounting program tenure tracks. The most common specialty for lawyers is tax accounting. Some accounting departments also teach business law and ethics using lawyers.

Hope this helps.

Bob Jensen

PS
Case Western has a very respected accounting history track in its PhD program, but I'm not certain how many of the accountics hurdles are relaxed except at the dissertation stage.

Advice and Bibliography for Accounting Ph.D. Students and New Faculty by James Martin ---
http://maaw.info/AdviceforAccountingPhDstudentsMain.htm

The Sad State of North American Accountancy Doctoral Programs ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms

 

 


Capsule Commentary Book Review, The Accounting Review, January 2012, pp. 356-357 ---
http://aaajournals.org/doi/full/10.2308/accr-10189

CAPSULE COMMENTARY

Stephen A. Zeff, Editor

HARRY I. WOLK (editor), Accounting Theory (London, U.K.: Sage Publications Ltd., 2009, ISBN 978-1-84787-609-6, pp. xlv, 1,518 in four volumes).

Harry I. Wolk, the compiler of this collection of 74 previously published articles and other essays, died in October 2009 at age 79. In 1984, he was assisted by two colleagues in writing a thoughtful, wide-ranging textbook on accounting theory, which is now in its seventh edition. He has, thus, been a close student of the accounting theory literature for many years.

Wolk's valedictory contribution is this anthology, which is divided into ten sections: philosophical background, accounting concepts, conceptual frameworks, accounting for changing prices, standard setting, applications of accounting theory to five measurement areas, agency theory, principles versus rules, international accounting standards, and accounting issues in East and Southeast Asia. Because he provides only a two-and-a-half-page general introduction, we cannot know the criteria he used to make these selections. The earliest of the articles dates from 1958, and one infers that this collection represents the body of work that, over his long career, mostly at Drake University, he found to be influential writings.

Among the major contributors to the theory literature represented in the collection are Devine, Mattessich, Davidson, Solomons, Sterling, Thomas, Bell, Shillinglaw, Bedford, Ijiri, and Stamp. Conspicuous omissions are Chambers, Baxter, Staubus, Moonitz, Sorter, and Vatter. Although many of the earlier pieces have stood the test of time, a number of the more recent selections would, inevitably, be open to second-guessing. To be sure, most of these articles can be accessed electronically, yet it is instructive to know the works that Harry Wolk believed were worth remembering, and it is handy to have them all in one collection.

The price tag of £600/$1,050 for the four-volume set will, unfortunately, deter all but the most enthusiastic purchasers.

Jensen Comment
And to think my constantly-updated accounting theory book (in two volumes) has a price tag of $0 (Sigh!)---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm

But I do thank Harry for providing me with an accounting illustration that I turned into the most popular Excel illustration that I ever authored (i.e., popular in the eyes of my students over the years) ---
www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/Excel/wtdcase2a.xls

 


Comparisons of IFRS with Domestic Standards of Many Nations
http://www.iasplus.com/country/compare.htm

More Detailed Differences (Comparisons) between FASB and IASB Accounting Standards

2011 Update

"IFRS and US GAAP: Similarities and Differences" according to PwC (2011 Edition)
http://www.pwc.com/us/en/issues/ifrs-reporting/publications/ifrs-and-us-gaap-similarities-and-differences.jhtml
Note the Download button!
Note that warnings are given throughout the document that the similarities and differences mentioned in the booklet are not comprehensive of all similarities and differences. The document is, however, a valuable addition to students of FASB versus IASB standard differences and similarities.

It's not easy keeping track of what's changing and how, but this publication can help. Changes for 2011 include:

This continues to be one of PwC's most-read publications, and we are confident the 2011 edition will further your understanding of these issues and potential next steps.

For further exploration of the similarities and differences between IFRS and US GAAP, please also visit our IFRS Video Learning Center.

To request a hard copy of this publication, please contact your PwC engagement team or contact us.

Jensen Comment
My favorite comparison topics (Derivatives and Hedging) begin on Page 158
The booklet does a good job listing differences but, in my opinion, overly downplays the importance of these differences. It may well be that IFRS is more restrictive in some areas and less restrictive in other areas to a fault. This is one topical area where IFRS becomes much too subjective such that comparisons of derivatives and hedging activities under IFRS can defeat the main purpose of "standards." The main purpose of an "accounting standard" is to lead to greater comparability of inter-company financial statements. Boo on IFRS in this topical area, especially when it comes to testing hedge effectiveness!

One key quotation is on Page 165

IFRS does not specifically discuss the methodology of applying a critical-terms match in the level of detail included within U.S. GAAP.
Then it goes yatta, yatta, yatta.

Jensen Comment
This is so typical of when IFRS fails to present the "same level of detail" and more importantly fails to provide "implementation guidance" comparable with the FASB's DIG implementation topics and illustrations.

I have a huge beef with the lack of illustrations in IFRS versus the many illustrations in U.S. GAAP.

I have a huge beef with the lack of illustrations in IFRS versus the many illustrations in U.S. GAAP.

I have a huge beef with the lack of illustrations in IFRS versus the many illustrations in U.S. GAAP.

Bob Jensen's threads on accounting standards setting controversies ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#MethodsForSetting

Comparisons of IFRS with Domestic Standards of Many Nations
http://www.iasplus.com/country/compare.htm

 


Chris Deeley in Australia and I have been corresponding regarding an antique learning curve paper that I published nearly 20 years ago. You can read some of our correspondence at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theorylearningcurves.htm
In that correspondence I discuss the good and evil of the Wolfram Alpha computational search engine.

Chris also sent me his latest working paper on an entirely different topic (which I've not yet found time to delve into). I asked if I could serve up the paper to my AECM friends and others. When I find time I would like to test some of his formulas in Wolfram Alpha. Chris is skeptical.

September 23, 2010 message from

Bob
Yes, by all means post my working paper on general annuities on the AECM website. I suspect that Wolfram Alpha may not be able to handle this sort of thing. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the application of standard maths has created and entrenched the error. Chris

Chris Deeley
Senior Lecturer in Accounting & Finance
School of Accounting,
Faculty of Business
Charles Sturt University,
Locked Mail Bag 588
Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678
Ph: +612 69332694 Fax: +612 69332790
Email: cdeeley@csu.edu.au 
Web:www.csu.edu.a u

I put his paper on one of my Web servers. I'm sure that Chris will appreciate any comments that you have regarding this technical topic. It may be a good exercise for accounting and finance students to study this paper.

"IDENTIFICATION AND CORRECTION OF A COMMON ERROR IN GENERAL ANNUITY CALCULATIONS," by Chris Deeley, Charles Sturt University, Australia., September 23, 2010 Working Draft ---
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeeleyAnnuityCorrections.pdf


The Insignificance of Testing the Null

October 1, 2010 message from Amy Dunbar

Nick Cox posted a link to a statistics paper on statalist:

2009. Statistics: reasoning on uncertainty, and the insignificance of testing null. Annales Zoologici Fennici 46: 138-157.

http://www.sekj.org/PDF/anz46-free/anz46-138.pdf

Cox commented that the paper touches provocatively on several topics often aired on statalist including the uselessness of dynamite or detonator plots, displays for comparing group means and especially the over-use of null hypothesis testing. The main target audience is ecologists but most of the issues cut across statistical science.

Dunbar comment: The paper would be a great addition to any PhD research seminar. The author also has some suggestions for journal editors. I included some responses to Nick's original post below.

Jensen Comment
And to think Alpha (Type 1) error is the easy part. Does anybody ever test for the more important Beta (Type 2) error? I think some engineers test for Type 2 error with Operating Characteristic (OC) curves, but these are generally applied where controlled experiments are super controlled such as in quality control testing.

Beta Error --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_error#Type_II_error


Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm

Tom Lehrer on Mathematical Models and Statistics ---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfZWyUXn3So

Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the vegetable nutrition paradox) that probably will never be solved ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews

 

Accounting  and Taxation News Sites ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm

 

For an elaboration on the reasons you should join a ListServ (usually for free) go to   http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListServRoles.htm
AECM (Educators) http://listserv.aaahq.org/cgi-bin/wa.exe?HOME
AECM is an email Listserv list which provides a forum for discussions of all hardware and software which can be useful in any way for accounting education at the college/university level. Hardware includes all platforms and peripherals. Software includes spreadsheets, practice sets, multimedia authoring and presentation packages, data base programs, tax packages, World Wide Web applications, etc.

Over the years the AECM has become the worldwide forum for accounting educators on all issues of accountancy and accounting education, including debates on accounting standards, managerial accounting, careers, fraud, forensic accounting, auditing, doctoral programs, and critical debates on academic (accountics) research, publication, replication, and validity testing.

 

CPAS-L (Practitioners) http://pacioli.loyola.edu/cpas-l/  (Closed Down)
CPAS-L provides a forum for discussions of all aspects of the practice of accounting. It provides an unmoderated environment where issues, questions, comments, ideas, etc. related to accounting can be freely discussed. Members are welcome to take an active role by posting to CPAS-L or an inactive role by just monitoring the list. You qualify for a free subscription if you are either a CPA or a professional accountant in public accounting, private industry, government or education. Others will be denied access.
Yahoo (Practitioners)  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/xyztalk
This forum is for CPAs to discuss the activities of the AICPA. This can be anything  from the CPA2BIZ portal to the XYZ initiative or anything else that relates to the AICPA.
AccountantsWorld  http://accountantsworld.com/forums/default.asp?scope=1 
This site hosts various discussion groups on such topics as accounting software, consulting, financial planning, fixed assets, payroll, human resources, profit on the Internet, and taxation.
Business Valuation Group BusValGroup-subscribe@topica.com 
This discussion group is headed by Randy Schostag [RSchostag@BUSVALGROUP.COM
FEI's Financial Reporting Blog
Smart Stops on the Web, Journal of Accountancy, March 2008 --- http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/mar2008/smart_stops.htm
FINANCIAL REPORTING PORTAL
www.financialexecutives.org/blog

Find news highlights from the SEC, FASB and the International Accounting Standards Board on this financial reporting blog from Financial Executives International. The site, updated daily, compiles regulatory news, rulings and statements, comment letters on standards, and hot topics from the Web’s largest business and accounting publications and organizations. Look for continuing coverage of SOX requirements, fair value reporting and the Alternative Minimum Tax, plus emerging issues such as the subprime mortgage crisis, international convergence, and rules for tax return preparers.
The CAlCPA Tax Listserv

September 4, 2008 message from Scott Bonacker [lister@bonackers.com]
Scott has been a long-time contributor to the AECM listserv (he's a techie as well as a practicing CPA)

I found another listserve that is exceptional -

CalCPA maintains http://groups.yahoo.com/taxtalk/  and they let almost anyone join it.
Jim Counts, CPA is moderator.

There are several highly capable people that make frequent answers to tax questions posted there, and the answers are often in depth.

Scott

Scott forwarded the following message from Jim Counts

Yes you may mention info on your listserve about TaxTalk. As part of what you say please say [... any CPA or attorney or a member of the Calif Society of CPAs may join. It is possible to join without having a free Yahoo account but then they will not have access to the files and other items posted.

Once signed in on their Yahoo account go to http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/TaxTalk/ and I believe in top right corner is Join Group. Click on it and answer the few questions and in the comment box say you are a CPA or attorney, whichever you are and I will get the request to join.

Be aware that we run on the average 30 or move emails per day. I encourage people to set up a folder for just the emails from this listserve and then via a rule or filter send them to that folder instead of having them be in your inbox. Thus you can read them when you want and it will not fill up the inbox when you are looking for client emails etc.

We currently have about 830 CPAs and attorneys nationwide but mainly in California.... ]

Please encourage your members to join our listserve.

If any questions let me know.

Jim Counts CPA.CITP CTFA
Hemet, CA
Moderator TaxTalk

 

 

 

Daily News Sites for Accountancy, Tax, Fraud, IFRS, XBRL, Accounting History, and More ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/AccountingNews.htm

Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI
The Master List of Free Online College Courses ---
http://universitiesandcolleges.org/

Bob Jensen's threads for online worldwide education and training alternatives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Crossborder.htm

"U. of Manitoba Researchers Publish Open-Source Handbook on Educational Technology," by Steve Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 19, 2009 --- http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3671&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en


 

Concerns That Academic Accounting Research is Out of Touch With Realit

I think leading academic researchers avoid applied research for the profession because making seminal and creative discoveries that practitioners have not already discovered is enormously difficult. Accounting academe is threatened by the twin dangers of fossilization and scholasticism (of three types: tedium, high tech, and radical chic)
From http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm
 

“Knowledge and competence increasingly developed out of the internal dynamics of esoteric disciplines rather than within the context of shared perceptions of public needs,” writes Bender. “This is not to say that professionalized disciplines or the modern service professions that imitated them became socially irresponsible. But their contributions to society began to flow from their own self-definitions rather than from a reciprocal engagement with general public discourse.”

 

Now, there is a definite note of sadness in Bender’s narrative – as there always tends to be in accounts of the shift from Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft. Yet it is also clear that the transformation from civic to disciplinary professionalism was necessary.

 

“The new disciplines offered relatively precise subject matter and procedures,” Bender concedes, “at a time when both were greatly confused. The new professionalism also promised guarantees of competence — certification — in an era when criteria of intellectual authority were vague and professional performance was unreliable.”

But in the epilogue to Intellect and Public Life, Bender suggests that the process eventually went too far. “The risk now is precisely the opposite,” he writes. “Academe is threatened by the twin dangers of fossilization and scholasticism (of three types: tedium, high tech, and radical chic). The agenda for the next decade, at least as I see it, ought to be the opening up of the disciplines, the ventilating of professional communities that have come to share too much and that have become too self-referential.”

 

What went wrong in accounting/accountics research? 
How did academic accounting research become a pseudo science?
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong


Chris Deeley in Australia and I have been corresponding regarding an antique learning curve paper that I published nearly 20 years ago. You can read some of our correspondence at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theorylearningcurves.htm
In that correspondence I discuss the good and evil of the Wolfram Alpha computational search engine.

Instructors might want to consider adding this to their teaching modules on time value of money and annuity mathematics of finance.

Working Paper 440
Annuities With Unequal Compounding and Payment Periods:  The CFA Deconstruction Analysis
Bob Jensen at Trinity University

Financial calculators and Excel financial formulas for computing present value, interim payments, and rates of return assume that p=m where p is the number of equally-spaced payments per year and m is the number equally-spaced interest compoundings per year. Complications introduced by p not being equal to m are not trivial problems. These complications are overlooked in many (probably almost all) mathematics of finance modules in both high school and college courses.

 

This note will demonstrate how to deal with complications when the number of payments per year is unequal to the number in times interest is compounded per year. This is not a purely academic problem. Companies buying and selling annuities often do not want to change the number of times interest is compounded every time they change the number of payments per year in a contract such as semi-annual payments versus quarterly payments versus monthly payments.

 

The paper was inspired by the following working paper sent to me by an Australian professor named Chris Deeley. Chris subsequently allowed me to put his paper on one of my Web servers:

"IDENTIFICATION AND CORRECTION OF A COMMON ERROR IN GENERAL ANNUITY CALCULATIONS"
by Chris Deeley  cdeeley@csu.edu.au 
Working Paper, Charles Sturt University, Australia, September 22, 2010
http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/temp/DeeleyAnnuityCorrections.pdf

For illustrative purposes I will focus on the following example on Page 11 of Professor Deeley's working paper:

Example 2
A loan of $1million is to be repaid in equal monthly installments over four years. If the annual interest rate is 10% compounded semi-annually, how much is the monthly repayment?

 

The two solutions given by Professor Deeley for p=12 payments per year and m=2 interest compoundings per year are as follows:

Deeley Solution 1 PMT = $25,265.60 per month which Professor Deeley claims the "conventional solution"

Deeley Solution 2 PMT = $25,260.70 per month which Professor Deeley claims is his "proposed better solution"

 

I contend that there is a CFA Deconstruction and Rate Equivalence solution that I offer as an "alternate conventional solution" used of Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) examinations.

CFA Deconstruction PMT = $25,483 per month which conforms to David Frick's solution tutorial

I show how to calculate this $25,483 using both Wolfram Alpha and Excel in my Working Paper 440 ---
Bob Jensen's analysis of Annuities With Unequal Compounding and Payment Periods:  The CFA Deconstruction Analysis
 http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryAnnuity01.htm


 

Background Reference Links for Frauds and the Accountancy Scandals
Bob Jensen's homepage --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/ 
Bob Jensen's accounting theory documents --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory.htm 
Issues in the accounting, finance, and business scandals --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm 

Many of the scandals are documented at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/fraud.htm 

 

AccountingWeb invites professors to submit questions for a Weekly AccountingWeb Quiz ---
http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=104117

AccountingWEB is pleased to announce its weekly accounting quiz, now appearing in the Student Zone area of the AccountingWEB site. Just click Student Zone at the left of any AccountingWEB page (or click the Student Zone link at the bottom of this story) to access the weekly quiz and to be eligible for great prizes!

Accounting professors from across the country are participating in Test Your Knowledge, submitting their favorite quiz questions to see if they can stump the AccountingWEB audience. Each Monday, a new quiz will appear. The winners from the previous week will be announced in each Tuesday's Weekly Business Bite, a free news wire to which you can subscribe.

The top ten winners each week will receive AccountingWEB t-shirts. In the event that more than 10 participants get all the questions correct, a drawing will be held among the winners to select the 10 t-shirt recipients.

Only one entry is allowed per person, per quiz, however you can enter the new quiz each week, even if you are a winner of a previous quiz.

So dust off your accounting rules and enter this week's quiz TODAY!

Note that AccountingWeb now has a "Student Zone" at http://www.accountingweb.com/news/student_channel.html
There's also a "Lecture Hall" at http://www.accountingweb.com/lecture_hall/index.html
A useful set of accounting links is provided at http://www.accountingweb.com/links/index.html
I added these to my bookmarks at http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm

Jensen Comment
Accounting instructors may want to add some of these questions to their test banks. Or they may want their students to take these weekly quizzes as part of a course (possibly only for non-credit practice and fun).

Recently I added some of my old theory exam questions and problems (heavy on FAS 133 and IAS 39) under "Exam Material" at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/Calgary/CD/
Most of my questions and problems are probably too specialized for an AccountingWeb Quiz. But they may help advanced students learn more about theory.

 

 

The Big Ones That Got Away

Across a span of 30 years of research, I have been fortunate to have a relatively large number of research papers accepted for publication. to view a listing of the ones that "got caught" click on http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Published

I have also been fortuanate to have been invited to make presentations of my research at a great many conferences and university campuses. For a listing of these presentations, see http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations

In the course of those 40+ years, there were also some research papers that "got away." For a variety of reasons, journal referees and editors did not find sufficient merit in the drafts of these papers to accept them for publication. Most of my drafts that got away were deservedly rejected. (Probably in a conspiracy to keep me humble.) However, as I reflect upon my past work, I think that at least three of my favorites were rejected even though I liked the papers better than most of my work that was accepted for publication. The powers of the Internet now allow me to make these "big ones" available to the world. The papers below are HTML versions of the original (not revised) drafts. Please keep the dates of the papers in mind in you take the time and trouble to examine my big ones that got away.

 

Return to Bob Jensen's Home Page Return to Top of Document

Click here to search this web site if you have key words to enter --- Search Site.
This search engine may get you some hits from other professors at Trinity University included with Bob Jensen's documents, but this may be to your benefit.