Economizing Principle in Accounting Research

Abstract

Joel S. Demski's work is characterized by the austere discipline of applying the economizing principle to accounting and management phenomena. In natural sciences optimization is used as a structural principle for understanding the organization of the physical universe. As social scientists applied it to our self-conscious selves, economizing acquired a behavioral interpretation, leading to unnecessary and avoidable confusion with the findings of cognitive sciences. Important aspects of aggregate level outcomes of social phenomena are structural. The use of the economizing principle for understanding social phenomena in general, and accounting in particular, has been highly productive, and it is not in conflict with cognitive limitations of human individuals. Demski's work defines the application of this powerful principle to problems of accounting.

Keywords: economizing principle, self-selection, employee stock options, integrated financial-tax accounting, audit failures

JEL Classification: M40, M41, M49