Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T05:54:41.719Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Strategic Experts and Improvising Regulators: Explaining the IASC's Rise to Global Influence, 1973–2001

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Leonardo Martinez-Diaz*
Affiliation:
Oxford University

Abstract

This article traces the ascent of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) from an obscure group with little influence in the early 1970s to a pre-eminent position as global accounting standard-setter in 2001. I argue that the rise of the IASC can be explained by several factors, including the IASC's ability to build legitimacy through technical expertise, to embed itself in a network of international organizations, and to benefit from rivalries among developed and developing countries and among European and American regulators. But the most important reason for the IASC's success is that its core values aligned strongly with the interests of the most powerful regulator-the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © V.K. Aggarwal 2005 and published under exclusive license to Cambridge University Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Basle Committee on Banking Supervision. 2000. Report to G-7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors on International Accounting Standards.Google Scholar
Benson, Henry. 1976. “The story of international accounting standards.” Accounting, 34–39.Google Scholar
Bernheim, B. Douglas and Whinston, Michael D. 1986. “Common Agency.” Econometrica 54 (4): 923942.Google Scholar
Bocqueraz, Claude and Walton, Peter. 2000. Creating a supranational regulator: the role of the individual and the mood of the times. A case study of change in accounting. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Choi, Frederick D.S. and Mueller, Gerhard G. 1992. International Accounting. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Drake, William J. and Nicolaïdis, Kalypso. 1992. “Ideas, Interests, and Institutionalization: ‘Trade in Services’ and the Uruguay Round.” International Organization 46 (1): 37100.Google Scholar
Eaton, Sarah B.The Role of Crisis in he Consolidation of International Accounting Standards: the IASB, Enron, and America.” Journal of Business and Politics, Vol. 7 (2005) No. 3, Article 4.Google Scholar
European Commission Communication COM 95 (508). 1995. Accounting Harmonisation: A New Strategy Vis-à-Vis International Harmonisation.Google Scholar
European Commission Communication COM (2000) 359 final. 2000. EU Financial Reporting Strategy: the way forward.Google Scholar
Evans, T.G. and Taylor, M.E. 1982. “Bottom Line Compliance with the IASC: A Comparative Analysis.” International Journal of Accounting, 115128.Google Scholar
G-7. 1998a. Strengthening the Architecture of the Global Financial System: Report of the G-7 Finance Ministers to G-7 Heads of State or Government for their meeting in Birmingham May 1998.Google Scholar
G-7. 1998b. Declaration of G-7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors.Google Scholar
G-22. 1998a. Report of the Working Group on Transparency and Accountability.Google Scholar
G-22. 1998b. Report of the Working Group on Strengthening Financial Systems.Google Scholar
Gray, S.J. 1984. “Disclosure Behaviour by Multinational Corporations and the Development of Supranational Accounting Standards.” Report to the Economic and Social Research Council, Glasgow.Google Scholar
Haas, Peter M. 1992. “Introduction: Epistemic Communities and International Policy Coordination.” International Organization 46 (1): 135.Google Scholar
Hopwood, Anthony G. 1994. “Some reflections on ‘The harmonization of accounting within the EU.’The European Accounting Review 3 (2): 241253.Google Scholar
International Accounting Standards Committee. 1989. Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements.Google Scholar
International Accounting Standards Committee's Strategy Working Party. 1998. Shaping IASC for the Future.Google Scholar
International Monetary Fund. 1999. Report of the Managing Director to the Interim Committee on Progress in Strengthening the Architecture of the International Financial System.Google Scholar
International Organization of Securities and Exchange Commissions (IOSCO). 2000. A Resolution on IASC Standards.Google Scholar
Lafferty, M., Cairns, D., Carty, and J. 1979. 100 Major European Companies’ Reports and Accounts. London: Financial Times.Google Scholar
Loya, Thomas A. and Boli, John. 1999. “Standarization in the World Polity: Technical Rationality over Power.” In Constructing World Culture: International Nongovernmental Organizations Since 1875, edited by Boli, John and Thomas, George M. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Mason, A.K. 1981. “The Evolution of International Accounting Standards.” In Multinational Accounting: a Research Framework for the Eighties, edited by Choi, Frederick D.S. Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press.Google Scholar
Mattli, Walter and Büthe, Tim. 2005. “Accountability in Accounting? The Politics of Private Rule-Making in the Public Interest.” Governance 18 (3): 399429.Google Scholar
Mattli, Walter and Büthe, Tim. 2003. “Setting International Standards: Technological Rationalist or Primacy of Power?World Politics 56 (1): 142.Google Scholar
Meyer, John W., et al. 1997. “World Society and the Nation State.” American Journal of Sociology 103 (1): 144181.Google Scholar
Nobes, Christopher W. 1998. “The future shape of harmonization: some responses.” European Accounting Review 7 (2): 323330.Google Scholar
Nobes, Christopher W. 1994. A Study of the International Accounting Standards Committee. London: Coopers & Lybrand.Google Scholar
Perry, James. “International Accounting Standards and the Fund Economy: Efficiency for Whom?Journal of Business and Politics, Vol. 7 (2005), No. 3, Article 5.Google Scholar
Porter, Tony. “Private Authority, Technical Authority, and the Globalization of Accounting Standards.” Journal of Business and Politics, Vol. 7 (2005), No. 3, Article 2.Google Scholar
Rahman, S.F. 1988. Power and International Accounting Regulation: Accounting Policy Making at the United Nations. Ph.D. diss., Victoria University of Manchester.Google Scholar
Reinicke, Wolfgang. 1998. Global Public Policy. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Securities and Exchange Commission, Division of Corporation Finance. 1997. Statistical Report.Google Scholar
Securities and Exchange Commission. 1998. Annual Report.Google Scholar
Simmons, Beth A. 2001. “The International Politics of Harmonization: The Case of Capital Market Regulation.” International Organization 55 (3): 589620.Google Scholar
Stopford, John M., et al. 1991. Rival States, Rival Firms: Competition for World Market Shares. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
UNCTAD. 1998. The Role of Accounting Disclosure in the East Asian Financial Crisis.Google Scholar
World Bank. 1995. Financial Accounting, Reporting and Auditing Handbook. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar