The Portuguese accounting system and international accounting harmonization: a formal harmonization study

Abstract

Over the last few decades, the globalization of capital markets and the consequent problems arising from the diversity of accounting practices has raised the need to establish a single set of accounting standards, in order to attain an adequate level of accounting harmonization internationally. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has been carrying out a review of its standards, aiming to reduce existing alternatives. On its hand, the Accounting Standardization Commission (Comissão de Normalização Contabilística - CNC), as the Portuguese accounting standardization body, has been attempting to follow recent international accounting developments, and adapt them for use in Portugal. Using the concept of Euclidian distances proposed by Zorio Grima (2001), the main objectives of this paper are: (i) to measure the formal harmonization advances achieved in the successive stages of issue of the International Accounting Standards (IASs); (ii) to assess the evolution of national accounting standards and; (iii) to obtain empirical evidence on the level of consensus between the Portuguese accounting standards and the IASB. The results of this study confirm the progresses towards the comparability of financial information and a reduction in the gap between Portuguese accounting standards and IASs.