Murray Charles Wells (born 1936) is a New Zealand economist, top manager, and Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

, known for his work on the

history of accountancy The history of accounting or accountancy can be traced to ancient civilizations.Keith, Robson. 1992. “Accounting Numbers as ‘inscription’: Action at a Distance and the Development of Accounting.” ''Accounting, Organizations and Society'' ...

Life and work

Born in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, New Zealand, Wells attended

Christ's College, Christchurch Christ's College, Canterbury is an independent Anglican secondary day and boarding school for boys, located in the city centre of Christchurch, New Zealand. Founded in 1850 by Reverend Henry Jacobs in Lyttelton as a school for early settlers, t ...

,Allan T. Craswell
Wells, Murray Charles 1936-
" in: ''History of Accounting: An International Encyclopedia.''

Michael Chatfield Michael Chatfield (1930s-2004) was an American economist, accounting historian, and emeritus Professor of Accounting at the Southern Oregon University, known for his work on the history of accounting and accounting thought, and particularly for hi ...

Richard Vangermeersch Richard G.J. Vangermeersch (born 1940) is an American economist, and Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Rhode Island, particularly known for his ''History of Accounting: An International Encyclopedia,'' edited with Michael Chat ...

eds. 1996/2014. p. 607. and obtained his Master of Commerce at the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

, and his Ph.D. at the

. He also obtained his licence as

Certified Public Accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Stat ...

. Wells started his academic career at the

in 1966. In 1975 Wells was appointed Professor in Accounting at the University of Sydney. From 1988 to 1999 he acted also as Dean of the Faculty of Economics & Business, and from 1988 to 1997 he directed The University of Sydney Graduate School of Business. In 1996 he became emeritus professor, and has been on directed several organization ever since. Wells' research interests were in the fields of Accounting History, Financial and Cost Accounting Theory, and Corporate Governance. In 2008 Wells and a colleague Paul Murnane created the Australian scholarship foundation which has awarded over 2000 scholarships to the directors and staff of Australian charities. Wells was appointed an

Officer of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

(AO) in the

2019 Queen's Birthday Honours The 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as p ...

for "distinguished service to higher education, particularly to accountancy, and to business administration".

Selected publications

* Wells, M.C. ''Accounting for Common Costs.'' Urbana: University of Illinois, 1978. * Wells, Murray C. ''A Bibliography of Cost Accounting: Its Origins and Development to 1914.'' Center for International Education and Research in Accounting niversity of Illinois 1978.

Adolph Matz Adolph Matz (April 25, 1905 – October 1, 1986) was a German/American organizational theorist, and Professor of Accounting at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, known for his work on cost accounting. Life and work Matz was ...

.
A Bibliography of Cost Accounting: Its Origins and Development to 1914, 2 Vols. by M. C. Wells
" ''The Accounting Historians Journal,'' Vol. 8, No. 2 (Fall 1981), pp. 129-133. Articles, a selection: * Wells, Murray C. "Axioms for historical cost valuation." ''Journal of Accounting Research'' (1971): 171–180. * Wells, Murray C. "A revolution in accounting thought?." ''Accounting Review'' (1976): 471–482. * Wells, Murray C. "Some influences on the development of cost accounting." ''The Accounting Historians Journal'' (1977): 47–61. * Bromwich, Michael, and Murray C. Wells. "The usefulness of a measure of wealth." ''Abacus'' 19.2 (1983): 119–129. * Gormly, Claudia, and Murray Wells. "Costing activities: alternative views of history." ''Contributions in Economics and Economic History'' (1995): 45–56. * Wells, Murray C. "Accounting Education in Australia." ''International Handbook of Accounting Education and Certification:'' Published in Association with the International Association for Accounting Education and Research (2014): 143.

References

External links

Murray Wells
at University of Sydney {{DEFAULTSORT:Wells, Murray C. 1936 births Living people New Zealand economists University of Canterbury alumni University of Sydney alumni Academic staff of the University of Canterbury Academic staff of the University of Sydney Educators from Christchurch Officers of the Order of Australia New Zealand emigrants to Australia