Under current practice, most public employers do not report such costs until they pay for the promised benefits, often many years after employees have retired.

At the same time, they also report decreased costs of an average of 37 percent.

The University of Arizona researchers report both benefits and costs for their electronic meeting system.

The report also found that 75 percent of contractors reported "significantly higher costs of labor" in the last year.

At the same time, it was reporting costs to the Government, reporting a loss to receive tax breaks.

Other online student delivery services reported similar or even lower costs.

Cook County, Ill., with 5.1 million people, reported total costs of $13.2 million last year.

On $10.4 billion in sales last year, Caterpillar reported manufacturing costs of just over $8 billion.

Nearly 40% of businesses in this survey are still reporting additional costs to render products or services compatible with national specifications.

He said that, in general, accounting should move toward reporting market values of financial investments, rather than historical costs.