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Accounting Systems At The International Level

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Accounting is one of the oldest social sciences disciplines whose development has been affected by a variety of historical, economic, social-cultural and institutional factors. In essence, although the discipline is currently harmonized across different nations, accounting systems have been influenced by different national traits, a factor that also influenced the differences in accounting systems at the international level. In general, the accounting systems in use in different countries have developed as a result of different influential factors in each jurisdiction. Regardless of the jurisdiction, however, a number of key factors are generally agreed to have influenced the development of the accounting discipline. The most common …show more content…

Some examples of nations with such accounting policies include Switzerland as well as Japan. Inflation Historical cost accounting is distorted by an increase in price levels in the economy and leads to understating of the value of assets or expenses while earnings are overstated. Prices changes must be included accounts for the countries that have high inflation. In the past, the US and UK have also used similar price level accounting policies to respond to high inflation rates. Such experiments were developed to report on the impact of inflation on accounting. Level of Economic Development In essence, the level of economic development affects the nature of business transactions that are conducted within an economy. In addition, economic development determines which business transactions are most prevalent. The types of transactions common in a jurisdiction, in turn, determine the accounting issues within such a jurisdiction and hence directly influence the growth and development of accounting. To illustrate, accounting aspects such as stock based executive compensation and asset securitization are more relevant in economies with developed capital markets compared to economies with underdeveloped capital markets (Wang, 2014). Political and Economic Ties Accounting ideas and technologies have traditionally developed through conquest and commerce among other similar forces. For

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