At the beginning of each year, the editor of the AHJ chooses a recipient of the Best Paper Award from the previous year's journals. The recipient(s) receives a plaque and a check for $300. The editor also selects two recipient(s) for Awards of Excellence, these recipients receive a check for $100.

First Place: Plaque and $300
Award for Excellence: $100
Award for Excellence: $100

Congratulations to the 2019 Recipients!

Michael Doron (California State University, Northridge)

C. Richard Baker (Adelphi University)

Kiren Dosanjh Zucker (California State University, Northridge)

“Bookkeeper-Controller-CFO: The Rise of the Chief Financial and Chief Accounting Officer”

(Accounting Historians Journal, December 2019)

This paper traces the evolution of the chief accounting and chief financial officers from minor figures in corporate governance for most of the 20th century to senior management positions by the late 1970s. The paper begins with the testimony before Congress of Arthur Tucker during the debates over the legislation that would become the 1933 Securities Act. The impact of Tucker's efforts, the evolution of the legal liability of financial and accounting officers over the next several decades, the increasing complexity of corporate finance and financial reporting that led to the establishment of the CFO as a position second only to the CEO, and the place of the accounting officer among senior management, are analyzed in the subsequent sections. 

 

Michael Doron, Ph.D., CPA, is an associate professor in the Department of Accounting at California State University - Northridge. He received a doctorate in History at Texas A&M University, working under the direction of the late, eminent business historian Harold Livesay. Michael has published in The CPA Journal, Accounting History, and The Accounting Historians Journal. 



Charles Richard Baker is Professor of Accounting at the Willumstad School of Business, Adelphi University, New York. His main research interests are focused on the public accounting profession, in particular: the history of the profession, comparative systems of regulation, ethical issues, independence, and legal liability.

Professor Baker has published over 120 academic and profession articles in journals such as: The Accounting Review; Contemporary Accounting Research; Abacus; Journal of Accounting and Public Policy; European Accounting Review; Accounting History; Accounting Historians' Journal; Accounting History Review; Journal of Business Ethics; Human Relations; Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal; and Comptabilité-Contrôle-Audit. He has also served on the editorial board of various academic and professional journals including: Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal; Critical Perspectives on Accounting; Accounting Forum; Accounting and the Public Interest; Qualitative Research in Accounting and Finance; Accounting History; Accounting Historians' Journal; Research on Professional Responsibility and Ethics in Accounting; and The CPA Journal.

Professor Baker received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and he is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in New York State. 

Award for Excellence:

Dale Flesher (University of Mississippi)

Craig Foltin (Cleveland State University)

Gary J. Previts (Case Western Reserve University)

Mary Stone (University of Alabama)
 

“A Comprehensive Review of the Evolution of Accounting Standards for State and Local Government Pensions and OPEB”

(Accounting Historians Journal, June 2019)

Past Recipients of the Award:

2018     Maria Ryabova (Lomonosov Moscow State University) - “The Account Books of the Soranzo Fraterna (Venice 1406-1434) and their Place in the History of Bookkeeping”

2017     Frances Miley (University of Sussex) and Andrew Read (University of Sussex) - “Choreography of the Past: Accounting and the Writing of Christine de Pizan”

2016     Stephen Zeff (Rice University) - "Accounting Textbooks as Change Agents:  Finney’s Intermediate and Finney and Miller’s Intermediate from 1934 to 1958"

2015     Martin Persson (Western University) and Christopher Napier (Royal Holloway, University of London) - “R. J. Chambers and the AICPA’s Postulates and Principles Controversy: A Case of Vicarious Action”

2014     Richard Fleischman (Emeritus, John Carroll University), Thomas Tyson (St. John Fisher College), and David Oldroyd-McCollum (Durham University) - "The U.S. Freedman's Bureau in Post Civil War Reconstruction" 

2013     Dale L. Flesher, University of Mississippi and Gary J. Previts, Case Western Reserve University - "Donaldson Brown (1885-1965):  The Power of an Individual and His Ideas Over Time."

2012     Jacques Richard, University Paris Dauphine - “The Victory of the Prussian Railway Dynamic Accounting Over the Public Finance and Patrimonial Accounting Models (1838-1884): An Early Illustration of the Appearance of the Second State of Capitalist Financial Accounting and a Testimony Against the Agency and the Market for Excuses Theories"

2011     Jesse Dillard, Portland State University and Linda Ruchala, University of Nebraska-Lincoln -  “Veblen’s Placebo Another Historical Perspective on Administrative Evil”

2010     Warwick Funnell, University of Kent - “On His Majesty’s Secret Service: Accounting for the Secret Service in a Time of National Peril 1782-1806”

2009     Norman B. Macintosh, Queen’s University - “Effective Genealogical History: Possibilities for Critical Accounting History Research”

2008     Valerio Antonelli, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Trevor Boyns, Cardiff Business School and Fabrizio Cerbioni, University of Padua - “The Development of Accounting in Europe in the Era of Scientific Management: The Italian Engineering Conglomerate, Ansaldo, 1918 – 1940”

2007     Charles W. Wootton, Eastern Illinois University and Barbara E. Kemmerer, Eastern Illinois University -  “The Emergence of Mechanical Accounting in the U.S., 1880 – 1930”

2006     Richard K. Fleischman, John Carroll University and Thomas Tyson, St. John Fisher College - “Accounting for Interned Japanese-American Civilians during World War II: Creating Incentives and Establishing Controls for Captive Workers”

2005     Fernando Gutiérrez, Carlos Larrinaga and Miriam Núñez - “Cost and Management Accounting in Pre-Industrial Revolution Spain”

2005     Sarah A. Holmes, Sandra T. Welch and Laura R. Knudson - “The Role of Accounting Practices in the Disempowerment of the Coahuiltecan Indians”

2004     Warwick Funnell - “Accounting and the Pursuit of Utopia: The Possibility of Perfection in Paraguay”

2003     Richard K. Fleischman and R. Penny Marquette - “The Impact of World War II on Cost Accounting at the Sperry Corporation”

2002     Alan J. Richardson - “Professional Dominance:  The Relationship Between Financial Accounting and Managerial Accounting”