Simpson's Reversal Paradox and Cost Allocation
通过Stalcup纸业公司案例，说明间接成本分配可能产生悖论：不同分配方法下每种产品的单位成本同时增加或减少，并分析其与辛普森悖论的关系及对成本控制的意义。
Allocation of indirect costs among products sometimes yields a paradoxical result that unit cost for each product may increase under one method of allocation and may decrease for each product under another method. The Stalcup Paper Company case illustrate such behaviour of costs at the same, time, provides an accounting example of Simpon’s Reversal Paradox Simpson (1951), which Blyth (1972) discussed in the statistics literature. As with other paradoxes, this cost allocation paradox disappears upon closer scrutiny. This paper examines the properties of allocated costs in order to arrive at an intuitive understanding of the results. The relationship of the cost allocation problem to Simpson’s Paradox and the implications of the analysis for cost control are briefly discussed. Necessary and sufficient condition for occurrence of the Paradox is also given. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)