New Contributions on the Advent of the Economic Perspective on Accounting in Romania
Author:
Univ. Prof. Ion IONAȘCU, Ph.D.
JEL:
M49, N34, N84
DOI:
Keywords:
business economics, economic perspective on accounting, Romanian accounting
Abstract:
This study shows for the first time that, in Romania, in the first half of the twentieth century, the economic approach to accounting has been initially developed in business management courses, rather than in the accounting ones, at the Commercial Academies in Bucharest and Cluj, taken from the German school of business economics (Betriebswirtschaftslehre, germ). This economic oriented perspective on accounting discourse was initiated in 1916 by Virgil Madgearu, and then continued by other economists (such as Victor Slăvescu and Ion Evian) until the mid-twentieth century. These authors have embraced the concept of business management centered on accounting. The economic approach was developed in parallel with the mainstream legal-patrimony based perspective on accounting, which was put forward pervasively in accounting lectures, but which started to lose face in the early 1940s, as the economic approach increased visibility, under the influence of notable authors of the German school of business economics. The advent of the economic approach to accounting in Romanian was a direct consequence of connecting Romanian economic thought to one of the most prestigious schools of thought in accounting and business economics at the international level in the early part of the twentieth century.\r\n