ACCOUNTING STANDARDS, HEALTH-CARE, AND RETIRED AMERICAN WORKERS - AN INSTITUTIONAL CRITIQUE

The Financial Accounting Standards Board in 1990 issued an accounting standard (SFAS 106) that requires U.S. companies to apply accrual acco unting techniques to obligations arising from employee postretirement health care plans. Despite significant economic implications for curre nt and future retirees, U.S. workers and labor groups were conspicuous ly absent from deliberations preceding the issuance of the standard. T his paper critically examines, from an institutional perspective, how American workers were effectively denied a voice in the debate over th eir future health care benefits despite several avenues through which they can ostensibly express themselves. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Sc ience Ltd.