Abstract The article focuses on the mandated costs and benefits of a mandated post-baccalaureate education requirement in the United States. In the Spring of 1987, the AICPA's Board of Directors unanimously endorsed a package of proposals designed to restructure the professional standards of the accounting profession. One of the proposals called for the mandating of a 150-hour post-baccalaureate education program for all new applicants for AICPA membership after the year 2000. While many have supported a post-baccalaureate education requirement, there has been significant opposition from within the accounting profession, and progress on the implementation of an advanced education requirement has been slow. The continuing debate between parties on both sides of this issue has identified a variety of expected costs and benefits associated with requiring a post-baccalaureate education. Historically, a major obstacle towards achieving a resolution to the debate has been that there was very little concrete evidence to verify the existence or magnitude of the expected costs and benefits. Since CPAs in Florida have been experiencing the effects of the post-baccalaureate requirement for four years, they are in an excellent position to comment on the costs and benefits of the requirement.
Ortinau et al. (Wed,) studied this question.