Consolidated accounting for corporations in Spain was rare before the Seventh European Directive, adopted by the European Union in 1983, and only became compulsory in 1991. During the intervening years a number of firms elected to adopt consolidated accounting even though they were not required...

Two different forces are involved in the international harmonization of accounting: institutional endeavours to harmonize accounting internationally by developing common accounting rules and reporting standards, and spontaneous efforts by 'global players' to adopt accounting methods that will...

In this study we extend prior research on the international analysis of accounting conservatism (Joos and Lang, 1994; Ball et al., 2000; Giner and Rees, 2001), by examining the level of accounting conservatism across eight European countries (United Kingdom, Germany, France, Switzerland, the...

Recently, a new dimension has been added to research in accounting harmonization by studying the effects of accounting practices and regulations on share price and return movements. Although there is an agreement of mutual recognition in the European stock markets of financial statements adapted...

We use the British real estate and investment fund industries as experimental settings where historic cost (HC) and fair value accounting (FVA) can be compared. Both industries have the majority of their assets marked to market and hence the difference between the two accounting systems is...