Nineteenth century US railroads were the first ‘big businesses’ and had profound influence on society. This paper addresses one source of talent for the early US public accounting profession—railroads. Following the end of the US Civil War (1861–65), industrial expansion was a...

The accounting Public Oversight Board (POB), an independent private sector body, was established in 1977, held its first meeting in 1978, and was terminated in 2002 at the creation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). During the last twelve years of its history, the POB...

Accounting fraud has been widely publicized in recent years, especially the large frauds perpetrated at U. S. companies such as Enron and WorldCom, but frauds are not country specific, and similar events have occurred in the past decade in many countries, including Italy and India. What is...