AC470      Half Unit
Accounting in the Global Economy

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Additional requisites:

There are no specific pre-requisites and the course does not require a background in accounting.

This course examines the fast-changing practices and institutions of accounting in the global economy, with a particular emphasis on the roles of accounting in global financial governance. International accounting and auditing standards have been advocated as a way of enhancing global financial stability, so as to stimulate the flow of cross-national investment, expand the scope for market-oriented development, and integrate local enterprises into global financial markets. This course critically examines dynamics of accounting regulation, including international standard-setting and consequences for financial statement users, business entities and wider local and global stakeholders. In this context, we will also explore issues related to global sustainability reporting and standardisation.

Topics include:

Political, institutional and economic influences in changing national and international financial reporting frameworks. The political economy of accounting standard-setting. The work of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), the European Union, national accounting bodies, and their political and economic environments. The rise of concerns with sustainability reporting and standard-setting.

The effects of national financial reporting requirements and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on business entities and economic development, particularly developing and emerging economies (including the BRIC countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China). The enforcement of financial reporting requirements through auditors, securities regulators, the World Bank and others.

Specific technical challenges (for example, transfer pricing, fair value accounting, impairment testing, derivatives and other financial instruments, sustainability reporting and standardisation).

The course explores issues from different theoretical perspectives through comparative empirical analysis.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

Teaching is delivered in two weekly 90-minute sessions over 10 weeks across Winter Term. Each session draws on a variety of academic readings, practical exercises, and case analyses. 

This course has no regular teaching in Week 6 of WT. 

It is further intended to run a small number of additional sessions with invited speakers who are centrally involved at a senior level in the setting, enforcement and convergence of international accounting regulations. Further details will be provided at the start of the session.

Students are expected to come to each session prepared having done the assigned readings and having prepared the assigned class discussion questions. 

Detailed reading lists will be given out at the start of the session, and are largely based on academic journal articles. Other readings include academic cases, policy briefings, regulatory documents and green and white papers.

Relevant books:

• Camfferman & Zeff, Aiming for Global Accounting Standards, 2001-2011 (Oxford University Press, 2018);
• Botzem, The Politics of Accounting Regulation (Edward Elgar, 2012);
• Becker, Bischof and Daske, IFRS: Markets, Practice, and Politics (Foundations and Trends® in Accounting, 2021: Vol. 15, No. 1–2, pp. 1–262);
• Ramanna, Political Standards: Corporate Interest, Ideology and Leadership in the Shaping of Accounting Rules for the Market Economy (University of Chicago Press, 2015);
• Doupnik, Finn, Gotti & Perera, International Accounting (McGraw Hill, 2024);
• Nobes & Parker, Comparative International Accounting (Pearson, 2020);
• Weetman & Tsalavoutas (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Accounting in Emerging Economies (Routledge, 2020).

Exam (100%), duration: 120 Minutes in the Spring exam period