Axioms and structures of conventional accounting measurement

Abstract

This paper probes into the foundations of conventional accounting measurements in order to construct a relatively simple axiom system on which a purely mathematical measurement system can be erected and thus provide a consistent basis for examining pertinent aspects of conventional accounting practices. […] We take conventional accounting measurement as given rather than, ab initio, seeking to prescribe what we think accounting measurement should be. […] Our attempt has been directed toward approximating conventional accounting by a relatively simple set of axioms and measurement rules, in the same manner that scientists in physics or chemistry have tried to develop a relatively simple set of concepts and theories in order to explain, in satisfactory degrees of approximation, complicated phenomena in this world.