Have academic accountants and financial accounting standard setters traded places?

Abstract

The basic premise of this paper is that academic accountants and financial accounting standard setters have traded places in their normative vs positive orientations. Academics have shifted from normative to positive, while standard setters have shifted from positive to normative. This paper was developed from a speech given at the August 2012 American Accounting Association Annual Meeting, which was followed by speeches by Ross Watts, Richard Macve, and Steve Zeff on the same subject. Ross Watts argued that a lack of understanding about accounting history and evolution is a likely source of problems. He also summarized the recent evidence in (Allen and Ramanna (2013). Towards an understanding of the role of standard setters in standard setting. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 55(1), 66-90) on the association between standard setters' backgrounds and the positions they take. Richard Macve added UK and IFRS perspectives (Macve, R. (2013). “Trading places”: A UK (and IFRS) comment. Accounting, Economics, and Law, 2014;4(1):1-14), and Steve Zeff provided a more in-depth historical perspective (Zeff, S. A. (2013). Some historical reflections on “Have academics and the standard setters traded places?” Accounting, Economics, and Law, 2014;4(1):1-8).