A Simulation Analysis of Interactions among Errors in Costing Systems
通过模拟两阶段成本分配系统，发现部分改进通常提高成本准确性，但特定情况下误差会抵消；第二阶段误差影响更大；聚合与测量误差导致多数产品被低估成本，少数高价值产品被高估。
Cost accounting systems provide accurate costs only under stringent conditions. However, we know little about the nature, level, and bias of costing errors. This paper reports the results of a simulation study of two-stage cost allocation systems that provide the following main insights: (1) partial improvement in the costing system usually increases the overall accuracy of reported product costs except in specific cases identified in this paper where errors have an offsetting effect, most notably when there is aggregation error in the activity cost pools and measurement error in the resource drivers; (2) the impact of Stage II costing errors on overall accuracy is stronger than that of Stage I errors, so system refinements should focus on Stage II; and (3) the presence of aggregation and measurement errors usually results in relatively more products being under- than over-costed, with large amounts of over-costing for a few “big-ticket” (in dollar terms) products, and small amounts of under-costing for a larger number of less expensive products.