Implementation of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards in Europe. Variations on a Global Theme

Polzer, Tobias ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5235-3412 and Grossi, Giuseppe and Reichard, Christoph (2021) Implementation of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards in Europe. Variations on a Global Theme. Accounting Forum, 46 (1). pp. 57-82. ISSN 1467-6303

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Abstract

As part of introducing accrual accounting in the public sector, many governments have–voluntarily–implemented the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) for financial reporting. Amongst other claimed benefits, IPSAS have been argued to facilitate comparison of adopters’ financial reports and to lead to favourable conditions on credit markets. However, governments that are confronted with the implementation decision face a trade-off between unaltered adoption, partial adoption, adaptation and non-adoption of standards. Drawing on insights from the literature on standardization and practice variation, this paper analyses the reasons, expressed by various actors from nine European countries, for deviating from implementing unaltered IPSAS and proposes a taxonomy of these reasons. The results show that, first, substantial deviations exist, and second, there is aplethora of reasons for them. These deviations are presented and then structured in the further course of the paper. As aconsequence of deviations, achieving comparability as the central aim of standardization runs the risk of being undermined.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	International Public Sector, Accounting Standards, Europe, deviation, standardization, practice variation, comparability of financial reporting
Divisions:	Departments > Management > Organization Studies Forschungsinstitute > Urban Management and Governance Forschungsinstitute > Urban Management and Governance > Meyer
Version of the Document:	Published
Depositing User:	Gertraud Novotny
Date Deposited:	20 May 2021 14:16
Last Modified:	08 Mar 2022 13:00
Related URLs:	Publisher
FIDES Link:	https://bach.wu.ac.at/d/research/results/99445/
URI:	https://epub.wu.ac.at/id/eprint/8128

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