清晨好,您是今天最早来到科研通的研友!由于当前在线用户较少,发布求助请尽量完整地填写文献信息,科研通机器人24小时在线,伴您科研之路漫漫前行!

On the Misuse of Accounting Rates of Return to Infer Monopoly Profits

经济 收益率 垄断 会计信息系统 股本回报率 盈利能力指数 时间加权回报率 账面价值 股东 内部收益率 收入 使用资本回报率 持有期收益 会计核算方法 资本回报 投资回报率 会计 投资业绩 金融经济学 利润(经济学) 财务 微观经济学 公司治理 生产(经济) 收益 资本形成 金融资本
作者
Franklin M. Fisher,John J. McGowan
出处
期刊:The American Economic Review [American Economic Association]
卷期号:73 (1): 82-97 被引量:774
摘要

Accounting rates of return are frequently used as indices of monopoly power and market performance by economists and lawyers.' Such a procedure is valid only to the extent that profits are indeed monopoly profits, accounting profits are in fact economic profits, and the accounting rate of return equals the economic rate of return. The large volume of research investigating the profits-concentration relationship uniformly relies on accounting rates of return, such as the ratio of reported profits to total assets or to stockholders' equity as the measure of profitability to be related to concentration.2 Many users of accounting rates of return seem well aware that profits as reported by accountants may not be consistent from firm to firm or industry to industry and may not correspond to economists' definitions of profits. Likewise, they recognize that accountants' statements of assets, hence also stockholders' equity, may fail to correspond to economically acceptable definitions, because accounting practices do not provide for the capitalization of certain activities such as research and development and do not incorporate allowances for inflation. This is to say they are well aware of certain measurement problems which arise in using available accounting information to measure profitability. They seem, however, totally unaware of a much deeper conceptual problem, namely, that accounting rates of return, even if properly and consistently measured, provide almost no information about economic rates of return.3 The economic rate of return on an investment is, of course, that discount rate that equates the present value of its expected net revenue stream to its initial outlay. Putting aside the measurement problems referred to above, it is clear that it is the economic rate of return that is equalized within an industry in long-run industry competitive equilibrium and (after adjustment for risk) equalized everywhere in a competitive economy in long-run equilibrium. It is an economic rate of return (after risk adjustment) above the cost of capital that promotes expansion under competition and is produced by output restriction under monopoly. Thus, the economic rate of return is the only correct measure of the profit rate for purposes of economic analysis.4 Accounting rates of return are useful only insofar as they yield information as to economic rates of return.5 *Fisher is professor of economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. McGowan was Vice-President, Charles River Associates. He died on April 7, 1982. This paper is based on work done for Fisher's testimony as a witness for IBM in U.S. v. IBM (69 Civ. 200, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York). We are indebted to Larry Brownstein, Steven Hendrick, and especially Karen Larson and Leah Hutten for computational and programming assistance. Any errors are our responsibility. 'Aside from U.S. v. IBM, see, for example, Joseph Cooper, p. 15; the various industry studies in Walter Adams; and the discussion in Philip Areeda and Donald Turner, Vol. II, pp. 331-41. 2See the comprehensive reviews of this literature by Leonard Weiss and more recently by F. M. Scherer, pp. 267-95. Additional accounting problems raised by attempting to measure profitability by line of business are discussed extensively in George Benston. 3A referee suggests that even the crudest accounting information tells us IBM is more profitable than American Motors (AMC), but we disagree. Surely accounting information tells us IBM generates more dollars of profits per dollar of assets than does AMC but, as the examples below demonstrate, that information alone does not tell us which firm is more profitable in the sense of having a higher economic rate of return. 4This is literally true only if the cost of capital is first subtracted. In what follows below, we follow the usual empirical practice of measuring all rates of return before such subtraction. sThe existence of a uniquely defined economic rate of return-which we now assume for the theoretical analysis below and which occurs in all the examples-is
最长约 10秒,即可获得该文献文件

科研通智能强力驱动
Strongly Powered by AbleSci AI
更新
PDF的下载单位、IP信息已删除 (2025-6-4)

科研通是完全免费的文献互助平台,具备全网最快的应助速度,最高的求助完成率。 对每一个文献求助,科研通都将尽心尽力,给求助人一个满意的交代。
实时播报
yx_cheng应助spinon采纳,获得10
3秒前
17秒前
franca2005完成签到 ,获得积分10
30秒前
汉堡包应助科研通管家采纳,获得10
1分钟前
彭于晏应助科研通管家采纳,获得10
1分钟前
香蕉觅云应助科研通管家采纳,获得10
1分钟前
CipherSage应助科研通管家采纳,获得10
1分钟前
GingerF完成签到 ,获得积分0
1分钟前
1分钟前
1437594843完成签到 ,获得积分10
1分钟前
1分钟前
2分钟前
大意的晓亦完成签到 ,获得积分10
2分钟前
叁月二完成签到 ,获得积分10
3分钟前
独立江湖女完成签到 ,获得积分10
3分钟前
3分钟前
Alisha完成签到,获得积分10
4分钟前
4分钟前
资白玉完成签到 ,获得积分10
4分钟前
岁和景明完成签到 ,获得积分10
4分钟前
华仔应助科研通管家采纳,获得10
5分钟前
充电宝应助科研通管家采纳,获得10
5分钟前
斯文败类应助科研通管家采纳,获得10
5分钟前
5分钟前
阳光的凡阳完成签到 ,获得积分10
5分钟前
5分钟前
5分钟前
CodeCraft应助欢呼的寻双采纳,获得10
5分钟前
LYZSh完成签到,获得积分10
5分钟前
CHEN完成签到 ,获得积分10
6分钟前
六一完成签到 ,获得积分10
6分钟前
professorY完成签到 ,获得积分10
6分钟前
小泉完成签到 ,获得积分10
6分钟前
6分钟前
6分钟前
6分钟前
丘比特应助科研通管家采纳,获得10
7分钟前
7分钟前
7分钟前
puzhongjiMiQ发布了新的文献求助200
7分钟前
高分求助中
A new approach to the extrapolation of accelerated life test data 1000
Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind 1000
Technical Brochure TB 814: LPIT applications in HV gas insulated switchgear 1000
Immigrant Incorporation in East Asian Democracies 500
Nucleophilic substitution in azasydnone-modified dinitroanisoles 500
不知道标题是什么 500
A Preliminary Study on Correlation Between Independent Components of Facial Thermal Images and Subjective Assessment of Chronic Stress 500
热门求助领域 (近24小时)
化学 材料科学 医学 生物 工程类 有机化学 生物化学 物理 内科学 纳米技术 计算机科学 化学工程 复合材料 遗传学 基因 物理化学 催化作用 冶金 细胞生物学 免疫学
热门帖子
关注 科研通微信公众号,转发送积分 3965722
求助须知:如何正确求助?哪些是违规求助? 3510967
关于积分的说明 11155723
捐赠科研通 3245436
什么是DOI,文献DOI怎么找? 1792920
邀请新用户注册赠送积分活动 874201
科研通“疑难数据库(出版商)”最低求助积分说明 804247