A major body of the literature discusses this issue formally
in the context of decision and/or institutional theory.
One basic argument in this context is provided by Demski
(1973) in his seminal paper on normative accounting
standards. His analysis relates to US-American regulatory
institutions aiming at identifying superior general accounting
standards for financial accounting purposes (FASB) as
well as for cost accounting and reporting for governmental
contracts (CASB). Demski formally proves that no such
standard can exist for decision-making purposes, i.e.: