one study suggests there is little if any upside but plenty of downside.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
four decades ago, the american institute of cpas promulgated a rule requiring accountants to complete 150 credit hours to qualify for certification, an increase from 120 hours. basically, it required a fifth year of college education.
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state boards of accountancy had discretion over when to enact the rule. by 2015, all states and u.s. territories had adopted it.
fun fact: the national rule did not impose any requirements on what courses the students had to take. it didn’t have to be courses on tax law or accounting standards. philosophy, music theory or basket-weaving would do. state boards, however, often mandate specific course requirements.
that extra year costs a lot in terms of time, money and, it seems, diversity, equity and inclusion (dei), not to mention the supply of cpas coming into the profession.
but is the extra ed really necessary?
maybe not, according to an international trio of academics.
little upside, plenty downside
andrew g. sutherland (mit sloan), matthias uckert (u. of amsterdam) and felix w. vetter (u. of mannheim, germany) have issued a paper suggesting that the additional 30 credit hours has little if any upside but plenty of downside.
the abstract of the paper concludes with “studying exam passing patterns, professional misconduct and job postings we find a deterioration, or at best, no change in cpa quality following enactment [of the 150-hour rule].”
it’s the time and money factors that create the dei factor. following the enactment of the rule, the number of minority students taking the extra courses declined by 26 percent. the decline for non-minority students was 14 percent.
the connection between time and money and dei fairness is kind of obvious. the notorious income and wealth inequality in the u.s. drives students from lower-income families – disproportionately black or latino – to graduate and get to work as soon as possible.
that extra year also costs an extra year of tuition. for lower-income students, that tuition is out of reach because it’s sometimes hard to find funding for courses beyond the standard four-year undergraduate curriculum.
the authors calculate that in the absence of the 150-hour rule, 1,390 more minority professionals would have become cpas in the past 10 years. in a typical year, some 700 minority cpas enter the profession.
whether the 150-hour rule causes a decline of 14 percent or 26 percent, the loss of potential accountants is critical in a profession in numerical descent. in 2022, the number of graduates taking a degree in accounting was below that of 2008. the number of cpa exam candidates dropped 7 percent in 2021 and 6 percent more in 2022. the u.s. needs more than 300,000 more accountants than are currently available.
is it worth it?
the paper, “occupational licensing and minority participation in professional labor markets,” also finds that the 150-hour requirement may not be serving much purpose. it was instituted by the aicpa in the belief that public accountants need extra instruction in the nation’s complex and arcane tax laws and financial regulation.
the paper finds
- no change in pre- and post-ruling violations ranging from failure to pay because of tax fraud, negligence in preparing financial statements, theft of funds or other discreditable acts
- no change in job postings requiring the extra year of study
to quote the paper:
“using granular data, we cannot detect any improvement in cpa quality following the enactment of the additional educational requirements. in fact, our analyses of licensing exam passing patterns indicate a decline in high-quality candidates that is concentrated in universities with large minority populations. moreover, our analyses of disciplinary actions point to the 150-hour rule having a null, or if anything, weakly positive effect on professional misconduct. last, we find no evidence that the 150-hour rule altered accountant employers’ perceptions of cpas.”
one response to “150 credit hours: helping or hindering?”
bernie ackerman
no new news here. practicing cpas and firm leaders realized many years ago that the extra 30 hours did nothing to improve job performance of new hires.
let’s get rid of it once and for all and mobilility will take care of itself for those that need it.