ABSTRACT
Accounts are a principal source of information for regulation, and the deficiencies of regulation may often be traced to deficiencies in accounting. These deficiencies are both theoretical (for example, the failure to use a constant measuring unit) and practical (for example, the failure to trace costs to products). In fact, much of the development of accounting, both theory and practice, has arisen out of the information needs of regulation, dating from the development of railway accounting in the mid-nineteenth century.
