An earlier article reviewed income smoothing in literature published up through 1953. This article extends that review through 1965, the year preceding the publication of the first modern empirical earnings management studies. The focus of this article is on the 1964 Gordon article which was the stimulus for those early income smoothing studies that began to appear in 1966 and marked the beginning of modern empiricism in accounting literature. Critical reading of Gordon's article suggests that he drew upon both earlier accounting and economics literature in formulating his theory of income smoothing. Review of the relevant earlier literature demonstrates that the primary elements of Gordon's article were present in both the earlier accounting and economics literature. Gordon's contribution was a more disciplined formulation of a theory of accounting choice than was present in the literature of this period and that theory included a series of seemingly straightforward, testable hypotheses.
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1 June 1997
Research Article|
June 01 1997
ANTECEDENTS OF MODERN EARNINGS MANAGEMENT RESEARCH: INCOME SMOOTHING IN LITERATURE, 1954–1965
Dale Buckmaster
Dale Buckmaster
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
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Received:
April 01 1996
Revision Received:
December 01 1996
Accepted:
March 01 1997
Online ISSN: 2327-4468
Print ISSN: 0148-4184
© 1997 American Accounting Association
1997
Accounting Historians Journal (1997) 24 (1): 75–91.
Citation
Dale Buckmaster; ANTECEDENTS OF MODERN EARNINGS MANAGEMENT RESEARCH: INCOME SMOOTHING IN LITERATURE, 1954–1965. Accounting Historians Journal 1 June 1997; 24 (1): 75–91. https://doi.org/10.2308/0148-4184.24.1.75
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