There was a favorable effect in that the regulations made it imperative for the regulated companies to prepare financial statements.  The regulatory commissions had a legal basis for demanding financial information from the entities that they regulated.

However, the consensus is that government regulation also has had an unfavorable impact through discouraging experimentation and innovation. Government regulations, once prescribed, were slow to change, and many of the regulations became out of date and did not keep up with the changing business environment.

Government regulation was important in furthering the development of the distinction between capital and income and developing the concept of deprecation.

Regulators often prescribed the accounting systems utilized by the companies they regulated.  The accounting system was used as an information gathering and disclosure device, then as a control device over the affairs of the companies, and finally as a means of helping in the rate-setting process, using a rate of return on assets as a mechanism for setting appropriate rates for services.