Book review of 'A Comparative analysis of regulatory strategies in accounting and their impact on corporate compliance' by Gabi Ebbers

Walton, Peter (2003). Book review of 'A Comparative analysis of regulatory strategies in accounting and their impact on corporate compliance' by Gabi Ebbers. International Journal of Accounting, 38(1) pp. 112–115.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0020-7063(02)00212-1

Abstract

The thesis is a comparative study centered on nine European countries that are members of the EU. The main focus of the work is compliance with financial reporting rules by listed companies and "to investigate whether the avoidance of regulation is associated with the different regulatory strategies for accounting found in Western Europe" (p. 1). The research involves examining company reports for their accounting policy in three areas of accounting, assessing compliance with the regulations in force and comparing the degree of compliance with the source of the rules. The outcome of statistical analysis is that compliance appears to be linked to the nature of the regulatory instruments and that regulation through standard setting is most likely to achieve a high level of compliance. The analysis also suggests that prescriptive rules ("formal" in terms of the study) are more likely to achieve compliance than principles-based rules ("antiformal").