国际政府会计研究外文文献.doc

International Governmental Accounting Research Klaus Lüder 1. Introduction Since the 1980s, governmental accounting in many (western industrialized ) countries has undergone fundamental changes, most importantly the introduction of accrual accounting at so me or all levels of government. This required an adaptation of the relevant accounting standards set by law, by standard setting bodies or by standard setting advisory bodies. International guidance for these reforms was only available from 2001 when the first International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs) were promulgated. The development of accounting practice over this period of time is characterised by - a growing divergence of national standards and practices not only between countries, but also – at different levels of government – within countries, - a lack of a (common) conceptual framework for governmental accounting as well as - lacking information on current national practices, reforms and national contextual conditions in the respective countries. Thus, the case for international governmental accounting research is easy to make. It is needed - to provide national standard setters with information on standards, practices and experiences in countries that already use the new approaches to avoid the “reinvention of the wheel”, - to provide international standards setters with information on national standards, practices and contextual settings as a basis for international standardisation of governmental accounting and thus contribute to convergence of accounting practices, - to develop a conceptual framework for governmental accounting as a basis for national and international standards or at least contribute to such a development. Irrespective of the current accounting practice and its future development, there were and still are interesting theoretical issues to be taken up by international governmental ac counting research such as - the relationship betw