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Socio-Economic Review Advance Access published online on October 15, 2007
Socio-Economic Review, doi:10.1093/ser/mwm017
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press and the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Globalization: governmental accounting and International Financial Reporting Standards

Alan Robb1 and Susan Newberry2,

1 St. Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
2 Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Correspondence: s.newberry{at}econ.usyd.edu.au

From the early 1990s, Australia and New Zealand pioneered the application of business-style accounting practices to all government activities. Today these business-style practices are advocated for governments around the world, either via International Financial Reporting Standards or via the similar International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS). Although accounting might seem purely technical, accounting practices can carry with them significant constitutional and political (social) implications. Business-style accounting was not devised for governments and is not suited to provide the essential constitutional safeguards or to fulfil governments' public accountability obligations. These points are illustrated using evidence from New Zealand before explaining that today's IPSAS developments were led initially from New Zealand. This article urges those in other countries to consider constitutional and political implications before proceeding with this development.

Key Words: financial institutions • governmental accounting • international financial reporting standards • public sector reforms • New Zealand


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