Production costs under an accounting and economic perspective - doi: 10.4025/enfoque.v28i1.8251

Abstract

Within the vast range of essential information for managing any business, one type deserves specialattention: production cost. It holds such importance, that it is an object of study in various areas ofknowledge. Studies and concepts on costs can be found in accounting and economic literatures. Eachfield, within its own focus and objective, aims to explain the phenomena that surround production costs,by means of research developed with that purpose. The objective of this work is to draw parallelsamong different concepts, used for short-term cost analysis, developed by the Accounting and Economicsfields. It was evidenced that a relationship exists in some of the analyzed points, such as the use ofvariable costing, as well as differences, such as the non-use of marginal costing in Accounting. Frequently, divergences occur due to the focus of each discipline, each having different objectives and purposes;in addition, both disciplines do not always feature the same level of detail in certain issues. Nevertheless,the exchange of information is extremely important between science fields that may study the sameobject at a given time, as one can complement the other, even if their analyses have a different focus.It behooves the development of Cost Accounting to give greater importance to economic studies oncosts, in order better incorporate these studies into future analyses, thereby enriching the data passedon to users.