기업이익개념에 관한 경제학 및 회계학적 고찰

Abstract

Both accountants and economists have been constantly discussed on the concept and measurement of business income. Economists complain that accountants are too mechanical and their procedures are not based on sound principle; accountants charge that economists are too idealistic and their concepts are impractical in calculating business income. The present paper is intended to make a brief comparision of business income in accounting and economics, hoping that this analysis will bring mutual understanding and thus benefit the future development of both fields. The computation of business income has been the central core of financial accounting since the development of "generally accepted accounting principles" in the 1930's. In reviewing the historical development of accounting since about 1930, we see that the income statement has become more important than the balance sheet. Both accounting and economics, especially in microeconomics, study the problems of business enterprise. Accounting field of study concentrates on recording, gathering, classifying and interpreting historical accounting data for an entity in conventional meaning of accounting, and highly developed field of economics theory of the firm deals with pricing, production, capital valuation and profits. Since the relationship is so close, one would naturally expect accountants to use portions of economic theory as they guides. Certainly two important measurement problems are common to both fields; the determination of net income(similar to the economic term profits), and the determination of financial position (similar to the economic term wealth, or capital value).