Does Study of the Information Content of Profits Announcements Explain Why Firms Use Particular Accounting Practice? Does It Help to Predict Which Firms Will Use Particular Accounting Practices?

Australasian Accounting Business and Finance Journal
Volume 1 Australasian Accounting Business and Finance Journal Issue 1 Australasian Accounting Business and Finance Journal Article 1

Accounting Research and Theory: The age of neoempiricism
M. Gaffikin
University of Wollongong, [e-mail]

Follow this and additional works at: http://ro.uow.edu.au/aabfj Copyright ©2007 Australasian Accounting Business and Finance Journal and Authors. Recommended Citation Gaffikin, M., Accounting Research and Theory: The age of neo-empiricism, Australasian Accounting Business and Finance Journal, 1(1), 2007. Available at:http://ro.uow.edu.au/aabfj/vol1/iss1/1
Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [e-mail]

Accounting Research and Theory: The age of neo-empiricism
Abstract

The theorising in accounting prior to 1970 was rejected as not providing sufficiently general theories. Informed by theories in economics and finance (and other disciplines such as psychology) and with the aid of computers, attempts to theorise accounting took a new direction. Large data collection and analysis emphasized a purportedly more systematic empirical approach to developing theory.
Keywords

accounting, neo-empiricism, capital markets research, behavioural finance, efficient

This journal article is available in Australasian Accounting Business and Finance Journal: http://ro.uow.edu.au/aabfj/vol1/iss1/1

The Australasian Accounting Business & Finance Journal, February 2007 Gaffikin: Accounting Research and Theory: the age of neo-empiricism. Vol. 1, No.1.pp. 1-19.

Accounting Research and Theory: The age of neo-empiricism
Michael Gaffikin, School of Accounting & Finance, University of Wollongong

ABSTRACT The theorising in accounting prior to 1970 was rejected as not providing sufficiently general theories. Informed by theories in economics and

References: Ball, R and P Brown (1968), “An Empirical Evaluation of Accounting Numbers”, Journal of Accounting Research, v 6, pp 159-177. Barth, M, W H Beaver and W R Landsman (2002), “The relevance of the value relevance literature for financial accounting standard setting: another view”, in Kothari et al, pp I 77-104. Beaver, W H (1968), “The Information Content of Annual Earnings Announcements”, Journal of Accounting Research, Supplement, v 6, pp 67-92. Beaver, W H (2002), “Perspectives on Recent Capital Market Research”, The Accounting Review, v 77, pp 453-474. Christenson, C (1983), “The Methodology of Positive Accounting”, The Accounting Review, v 58, pp 1-22. Cotter, J (1999) “Asset Revaluations and Debt Contracting”, Abacus, pp 268-85. Fama, E (1970), “Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work”, Journal of Finance, v 25, pp 383417. Fields T D, T Z Lys and L Vincent (2002), “Empirical Research on Accounting Choice”, in Kothari et al, pp I 255-307. Gaffikin, M J R (1986), "Legacy of the Golden Age: Recent Developments in the Methodology of Accounting", Abacus, March. Godfrey, J, A Hodgson and S Holmes (2003), Accounting Theory, (5 ed), Milton, John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd. 16 The Australasian Accounting Business & Finance Journal, February 2007 Gaffikin: Accounting Research and Theory: the age of neo-empiricism. Vol. 1, No.1. pp. 1-17. Healy, P M and K G Palepu (2002), “Information asymmetry. Corporate disclosure, and the capital markets: A review of the empirical disclosure literature’, in Kothari et al (2002) pp I 405-440. Henderson, Scott, Graham Peirson and Rob Brown (1992), Financial Accounting Theory, Its Nature and Development, Melbourne, Longman Cheshire. Holthausen, R W and R L Watts (2002), “The relevance of the value relevance literature for financial accounting standard setting”, in Kothari et al (2002), pp I 3-75. Jones, S, C Romano and J Ratnatunga (eds) (1995), Accounting Theory: a contemporary review, Sydney, Harcourt Brace Kothari, S P (2002), “Capital markets research in accounting”, in Kothari et al (2002), I 105-231. Kothari, S P, T Z Lys, D J Skinner, R L Watts and J L Zimmerman (2002), Contemporary Accounting Research, Synthesis and Critique, Amsterdam, Elsevier Science BV. Lee, C M C (2002), “Market efficiency and accounting research: a discussion of ‘capital market research in accounting’ by S P Kothari”, in Kothari et al (2002), pp I 233-253. Markowitz, H M (1959) Portfolio Selection: Efficient Diversification of Investments, New York, John Wiley Mouck, Tom (1992), “The Rhetoric of Science and the Rhetoric of Revolt in the ‘Story’ of Positive Accounting Theory”, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, pp 35-56. Neimark, M (1990), “The King is Dead, Long Live the Dead”, Critical Perspectives in Accounting, pp 103-114 Tinker, T, B Merino and M Neimark (1982), “The Normative Origins of Positive Theories: Ideology and Accounting Thought”, Accounting, Organizations and Society, v 7, pp 167-200. Watts, R (1995), “Developments in Positive Accounting Theory” in Jones at al pp 297-353. Watts, R and J Zimmerman (1978), “Towards a positive theory of the determination of accounting standards”, The Accounting Review, v 53, pp 112-134. Zimmerman, J L (1978), “On the ‘Statement on Accounting Theory and Theory Acceptance’ ”, Proceedings of the 1978 American Accounting Association Meeting, pp 606-622. Zimmerman, J L. (2002) in Kothari et al (2002), Contemporary Accounting Research, Synthesis and Critique, Amsterdam, Elsevier Science BV. 17