Measurement of diverse, irreversible capital
通过微观经济分析，提出一种基于计价物的会计方法，将多种不可逆投资资本统一度量，并探讨了确定性下用户成本与折旧的会计价值应满足的公理，以及不确定性下实际会计操作面临的困难。
This paper revisits capital measurement through a microeconomic analysis of a simple project consisting of diverse types of irreversibly invested capital. Capital is aggregated using the numeraire. Thus, the proposed method of measurement is a form of accounting. It associates all types of capital in a common framework. Under certainty, user cost and depreciation take internal accounting values that obey three axioms that comprise five conditions. The accounting values proliferate, but they have only a limited relation to market prices or shadow prices. Each type of capital earns the market rate of interest. In practice, under uncertainty, calculation of the accounting values would require projections of basic data, and would be hard to comprehend, especially for outsiders, and would leave room for moral hazard. Because of these obstacles, accounting practice departs from the ideal based on cash flows and strictly limits choice by using prescribed schedules of depreciation. These schedules are interpreted from an economic perspective.