“Forging accounting principles” in France, Germany, Japan, and China: A comparative review

Abstract

This article surveys the English-language literature on the history of financial reporting regulation in four non-English-speaking countries: France, Germany, Japan, and China. The choice of these countries was based on the availability of a sizable accounting history literature in the area surveyed. We first offer a summary of regulatory events in the four countries and suggest that the literature provides ample evidence of the countries' intricate histories of financial reporting regulation. In addition, we point to important research gaps, where we believe that the literature has significant underexploited potential, in particular by moving beyond high-level overviews of changing regulatory mechanisms to in-depth studies of regulatory change that are embedded in the local legal, political, and societal contexts. Hence, plenty of opportunities exist for further research into these countries' regulatory histories, either in terms of single-country studies or as comparative histories.

The governance of standard setting and the role of academia in Italian accounting regulation, 1942 to the present

“…This article investigates the role of the Italian accounting academia in national accounting standard setting from a historical perspective, reflecting on the factors affecting its evolution from the 1942 Civil Code to the present. In doing so, our analysis responds to the call for research into single-country regulatory histories (Camfferman and Detzen, 2018) by focusing on a non-Anglo-Saxon national context that is particularly interesting for two main reasons. First, Italy has been characterized by the presence of important schools of accounting thought, the presence of eminent scholars that fostered an intense scientific debate in the discipline and the existence of a significant cultural homogeneity in the specific discipline of Economia Aziendale .…”

De-coding the image of the firm: secret reserves and internal financing in the German chemical industry, c. 1890–1916

“…The correlation of a standardised accounting and the importance of reserve policies observed at the Dreibund (and possibly the Dreiverband with Hoechst as the company dictating the accounting terms) even remained valid for the IG. In conclusion, the development of reserve accounts at the IG members does, indeed, suggest a coherent approach regarding asset valuation, not least because the accounting regulation and scholarship had just slowly evolved since 1904 and did not receive major impulses until the 1920s (Camfferman and Detzen 2018, p. 460).…”

On Edwards’ A History of Corporate Financial Reporting in Britain

“…As a non-British reviewer, I will not be suspected of chauvinism if I go a step further and say that it is uniquely so. Up to a point, the story of how modern corporate financial reporting developed can be told for many if not most countries, and when reviewed comparatively these histories will show many similarities (Camfferman and Detzen, 2018). And yet, compared to many other countries, this history unfolded earlier in Britain than in many other countries, and gave rise to an intensity of reflection – in practise, in regulatory debates, in the media, and in the evolving accounting profession – that was not easily matched elsewhere.…”