ABSTRACT
The accompanying paper by Tarca illustrates a substantial degree of diversity in different countries’ accounting practices. This article takes a financial markets perspective to consider three fundamental questions relating to the reduction of this diversity through harmonisation of accounting standards:
How well do world equity markets now cope with diversity in accounting information?
How would harmonisation affect stock exchanges, and the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) in particular?
Would individual firms and their shareholders benefit from harmonisation?
