International Accounting Diversity

About this book

While many indicators point to the globalization of capital markets, one barrier may persist -- International Accounting Diversity. Even though coordination of many national policies is gaining favor, the measurement and disclosure principles that underlie financial statements remain largely a nationalistic affair. In this paper, we analyze the channels through which accounting diversity affects financial statements. Accounting differences may affect cash flows and lead to a direct affect on valuation. Accounting differences may also affect balance sheet items and measures of capital adequacy or credit worthiness that indirectly affect managerial decisions and firm valuation. In a survey of participants in the international capital market, we find that accounting diversity is a problem that affects the capital market decisions of roughly one-half of the participants in our study. Thus, we cannot rule out the possibility that international accounting diversity is a barrier whose presence may affect the pricing of securities and the composition of international portfolios. On the other hand, roughly one-half of the participants in this study found what they described as effective wa…