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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -This paper aims to investigate the use of costing information in Egypt. Design/methodology/approach -A survey was carried out of 40 Egyptian privately held firms in four sectors (pharmaceutical, foodstuff, chemical, and packing and wrapping industries). Findings -The paper finds that the use and sophistication of costing information in Egypt is limited. No advanced accounting techniques seem to be applied, activity-based costing concepts are largely unknown, and the main purpose of costing information is pricing decisions, rather than performance measurement, process improvement or cost reductions. Research limitations/implications -Considerable problems were encountered in obtaining responses to the questionnaire. The results suggest that not all questions were understood by the respondents, which could be caused by the use of Western management (accounting) terms and concepts in the questionnaire with which the respondents were unfamiliar. Originality/value -The paper is one of few surveys of management accounting practices in Africa, and (to the best of one's knowledge) the first in Egypt.