The evolution of global standards of accounting

  • The globalization of markets and companies has increased the demand for internationally comparable high quality accounting information resulting from a common set of accounting rules. Despite remarkable efforts of international harmonization for more than 25 years, accounting regulation is still the domain of national legislators or delegated standard setters. The paper starts by outlining the reasons for this state of affairs and by characterizing the different institutional backgrounds of accounting standard setting in four selected countries as well as on the international level. This is followed by a summary of important international differences in accounting rules and a summary of the empirical evidence of the impact of different rules on the resulting numbers and their relevance to users. It is argued that neither a priori theoretical reasoning nor the evidence from empirical studies provides a convincing basis for choices between accounting regimes and even less so between specific accounting rules. As there is a broad consensus that there is a need for one set of global accounting standards the final sections of the paper discuss currently existing and proposed structures of international accounting standard setting. The evolving new IASC structure is critically evaluated.

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Metadaten
Author:Günther GebhardtGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-9700
Parent Title (German):Institut für Kapitalmarktforschung (Frankfurt am Main): CFS working paper series ; No. 2000,05
Series (Serial Number):CFS working paper series (2000, 05)
Publisher:Inst. für Kapitalmarktforschung
Place of publication:Frankfurt am Main
Document Type:Working Paper
Language:English
Year of Completion:2000
Year of first Publication:2000
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2005/06/13
Tag:Accounting regulation; Global Accounting Standards; IASC New Structure; Standard Setting
GND Keyword:USA; Großbritannien; Deutschland; Frankreich; International Financial Reporting Standards; International Accounting Standards; Bilanzierungsgrundsätze; Bewertungsstetigkeit; Bilanzklarheitsgrundsatz; Bilanzkontinuität; Buchführungsgrundsätze; Generally Accepted Accounting Principles; Standardisierung; Zertifizierung
Issue:Version December 1999
Page Number:34
Source:CFS working paper ; 2000,05
HeBIS-PPN:348141513
Institutes:Wissenschaftliche Zentren und koordinierte Programme / Center for Financial Studies (CFS)
Dewey Decimal Classification:3 Sozialwissenschaften / 33 Wirtschaft / 330 Wirtschaft
Licence (German):License LogoDeutsches Urheberrecht