Financial Statement Valuations in Italian Accounting Thought Between the 19th and the 20th Century： From ＂Exchange Value＂ to ＂Historical Cost＂

The main subject of this paper is the theory of financial statement valuations observed in its historical development. More notably, regarding the subject, the research is concerned with some theoretical concepts developed by the Italian doctrine in a very specific age, namely, between the 19th and the 20th century, which in fact, devoid of any accounting regulation. This paper analyzes in particular the shift from the exchange value rule to the historical cost method and tries to explain the reasons of such a development. In the second half of the 19th century, some of the best Italian scholars, who were faced with the need to properly develop the problem of accounting valuations, thought that it was appropriate to rely on concepts that belonged to similar sciences, such as economics and real estate appraisal, by blindly borrowing the theory of value from the former and the theory of valuations from the latter. During that age, everything hinged around the concept of exchange value. At the dawn of the 20th century, the Italian accounting doctrine began to wonder about a subject that was crucial to the financial statement theory： the informative purposes underlying the financial statements. At the same time, the first principle took shape, which might be called as the ＂finalistic principle of value＂. It is still the basis of the theory of financial accounting measurements, for which different evaluative criteria must be applied to different informative purposes. Thus, an alternative criterion to that of the exchange value makes its appearance on the scene of the accounting valuations, notably the historical cost. The introduction of the historical cost criteria and above all the relinquishment of the combination of the ＂economic cost＂ in favor of that of the ＂manufacturing cost＂ allow the Italian accounting to get rid of the theories of economics and real estate appraisal, thus, becoming independent regarding the financial statement valuations.

Some of the Conventional Accounting Concepts That Are Not in Accordance With the Paradigm of Islamic Accounting

This paper discusses some of the conventional accounting concepts, such as historical cost concept, conservatism concept, matching concept, objectivity concept, stable monetary unit assumption, and going-concern assumption, which are not in accordance with the Islamic accounting paradigm due to their divergence with some verses of the Holy AI-Qur＇an, the Hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him （pbuh）, and the basic of Zakat calculation. This is a conceptual paper describing some of the conventional accounting concepts that are not in accordance with the paradigm of Islamic accounting. The paper concludes that the historical cost concept can be replaced by： current cash equivalent concept, historical cost and current value concepts （market selling price）, current cost concept, historical cost concept in all （except for Zakat purposes） accounting calculations, current valuation concept, and fair value concept. Conservatism concept must be eliminated if historical cost concept is not used anymore. Matching concept can be replaced by asset-liability approach concept. Objectivity concept can be replaced by Zakat accountability concept. Stability of the monetary unit assumption can be replaced by gold or silver measurement, or Dirham currency, and going-concern assumption must be eliminated.

Fair value accounting under financial crisis

The recent financial crisis has led to a vigorous debate about the pros and cons of fair-value accounting （FVA）. This debate presents a major challenge for FVA going forward and standard setters＇ push to extend FVA into other areas. In this article, we highlight three important issues as an attempt to make sense of the debate. First, much of the controversy results from confusion about what is new and different about FVA. Second, while there are legitimate concerns about marking to market （or pure FVA） in times of financial crisis, it is less clear that these problems apply to FVA as stipulated by the accounting standards, be it IFRS or U.S. GAAP. Third, historical cost accounting （HCA） is unlikely to be the remedy. There are a number of concerns about HCA as well and these problems could be larger than those with FVA.

The Dilemma of International Financial Reporting Standards and the Optimization of Financial Reporting——From the Perspective of Marx’s Theory of Fictitious Capital

Following the outbreak of the subprime financial crisis,international accounting standards came under heavy fire for being strongly pro-cyclical.Under those standards,financial reporting mixes financial statement data with financial analysis data,seriously weakening the public interest function of financial reporting.An analysis using Marx’s fictitious capital theory shows that fair value accounting and asset impairment accounting are both defective.In line with the principle of“accounting based on legal fact,”we use the methodology of“historical cost accounting plus fair value disclosure”to distinguish between legal fact and financial expectations in financial reporting.This is a viable means of appropriately resolving the contradiction between ensuring that enterprise financial reporting observes domestic law and ensuring that it accords with international trends.