Assignment Paper

1-Explain how international differences in ownership and financing of companies could lead to differences in financial reporting?

2- Which of the causes for differences in international accounting listed on slide 16 do you consider to be the most important? Why?

3- What (if any) role does culture play in international differences in management accounting? Provide examples

4- Discuss the usefulness and limitations of the concept of culture to explain international differences in accounting.

5- Do you think language and culture are linked? Providing examples, explain your answer.

6- Do you speak a language other than English (even some school French or Spanish)? Think of examples of words that have no equivalent or have a different meaning when translated (e.g. ratatouille, pizza, yakuzi). Then think of accounting terms that may have slightly different meanings (e.g. how to differentiate between depreciation, amortization, impairment)

7- Discuss why, and to what extent, religion can affect accounting practices and rules.
(Defining Islamic accounting: current issues, past roots. Accounting History)

1. Why are some EU companies listed on non-European (esp. North American) stock exchanges?

2- . Why is accounting harmonisation desirable?

3- Explain the following: de jure, de facto, harmonisation, standardisation, convergence

4- Is accounting harmonisation possible?

5-To what extent has, in your opinion, the work of the IASB eliminated international differences in financial reporting?

6-Why was the implementation of IFRS in the EU a rare opportunity for accounting research?

7- Discuss the problems arising for emerging and developing economies when trying to implement IFRS

8-In what ways have pre-communist and communist accounting affected post-communist accounting in Central and Eastern Europe?

9-Why is auditor independence a problem in Central and Eastern Europe?

10-Describe the different influences on Chinese accounting.

11-Discuss the parallels and the differences between the transition of accounting in China and that in Eastern Europe.

12- . What were the main motivations behind the creation of SOX, recent EU law and the IAASB Framework? What international influence did they have?
To answer this question, I would cover the following points:
• Motivations for the creation of these laws and guidelines were often accounting and audit failures/scandals
• Identify and discuss specific issues which were associated with audit failure, such as auditor independence, esp. the provision of non-audit services, and long tenure of audit firms, concentration in the audit market
• Brief introduction to the above laws/framework and their main provisions
• Examples: e.g. ENRON and how its failure, and that of Arthur Andersen, led to SOX, and how the 2008 financial crisis led to recent EU initiatives.
• Explanation as to why they led to changes in international audit and/or corporate governance rules

13-. Explain the importance of audit independence?

14- What are the causes of international differences in auditing and corporate governance?

15- . Define corporate governance, and briefly describe its main features