THE TWILIGHT OF INCOME MEASUREMENT: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS ON

The paper reviews events and trends since 1961, when the author incautiously forecast a possible decline in the importance of income measurement. He finds that little has changed in the intervening 25 years, and the forecast has not been borne out by events. Historical cost accounting has survived a period of serious inflation with hardly a dent. Earnings seem to be as important to financial analysts and to academic researchers as they ever were, and recent tax changes bring taxable income somewhat closer to accounting income than previously, thereby increasing the importance of the income concept rather than diminishing it.