Economic Depreciation, Accounting Depreciation, and Their Relation to Current Cost Accounting

The relevancy of changing prices in accounting for asset values for U.S. industries is explored. The analysis compares the economic value of assets with accounting-based valuations—historical and current cost—in an inflationary environment. A simulation is employed to estimate the magnitude of the errors of current cost and historical cost reporting. The results of the simulation indicate that where firms use sum-of-years-digits depreciation, current cost accounting is more accurate than historical cost accounting for all but 1 of the 32 asset classes tested. Where firms use straight-line depreciation, current cost accounting is more accurate for all classes of structures but not for all classes of equipment. For equipment under straight-line depreciation, the relative accuracy of current cost was directly related to the rate of inflation and inversely related to the rate of growth of asset outlays.