Accounting for Decision Making and Control

Research and teaching interests involve financial and managerial accounting. He and Professor Ross L. Watts received American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Awards in 1979 and 1980 for their joint papers. He received the American Accounting Association award for Seminal Contribution to Accounting Literature in 2004. He was the 1978 winner of the Competitive Manuscript Award, sponsored by the American Accounting Association, for his paper, "The Costs and Benefits of Cost Allocation." His research, which has come to be called "positive theories of accounting," seeks to understand the costs and benefits of various accounting procedures. He and Watts co-authored a book, Positive Accounting Theory, published by Prentice-Hall in 1986.

1)Introduction2)The nature of costs3)Opportunity cost of capital and capital budgeting4)Organizational architecture5)Responsibility accounting and transfer pricing6)Budgeting7)Cost allocation: Theory8)Cost allocation: Practices9)Absorption cost system10)Criticisms of absorption cost systems: Incentives to overproduce11)Criticisms of absorption cost systems: Inaccurate product costs12)Standard costs: Direct labor and materials13)Overhead and marketing variances14) Management accounting in a changing environment