【正文】
第 7 頁(yè) 外文翻譯 原文 1 The logic of pension accounting 2. Pensions as an expense . Early approaches to pension accounting In the USA and UK, privatesector employersponsored pension arrangements began to appear in the second half of the 19th century, and were often associated with large anizations such as railways, insurance panies and banks (Hannah, 1986: 10–12。 Chandar and Miranti,2021: 206). Accounting for these arrangements was often very simple. The cost recognized by the employer was effectively the cash paid in a given period. Some schemes operated on a ‘payasyougo’ basis, where the employer made no advance provision for retirement benefits. In this case, the cost each period equaled the benefits paid. In a scheme where the employer made contributions to an external fund invested in securities, out of which benefits would be paid, or made notional contributions to an internal account, the cost would be the contributions arising in each period, possibly augmented by interest on notional contributions if these were not used to purchase securities. However, many employers granted pensions to enable employees to retire, even though no advance provision had been made. The ‘expenseasyoupay’ accounting for pensions was rationalized through the ‘gratuity theory’ of retirement benefits (McGill et al., 2021: 16).This theory proposed that retirement benefits were awarded to retirees at the discretion of the employer, ‘a(chǎn)s a kindly act on the part of an employer towards old retainers who have served him faithfully and well’ (Pilch and Wood, 1979: 2). Paying a pension was not necessarily an act of pure benevolence, because it could allow an employer to retire an employee w