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Use Of Accounting Information In Governmental Regulation And Public Administration: The Impact Of John R. Commons And Early Institutional Economists, Mark A. Covaleski, Mark William Dirsmith, Sajay Samuel

Accounting Historians Journal

This paper examines the socio-political process by which an ensemble of such calculative practices and techniques as accounting came to be developed, adopted, and justified within turn-of-the-cen-tury public administration. We are particularly concerned with examining the influence of John R. Commons and other early institutional economists during this Progressive era. Using primary and secondary archival materials, our purpose is to make three main contributions to the literature. First, the paper explores Commons' contribution to the debates over "value" which seems to be somewhat unique in that he explicitly recognized that there exists no unproblematic, intrinsic measure of value, but rather …