Growing tendency to harmonisation with IFRS: some evidences from Turkey

Abstract

Motivated by the recent developments in accounting regulations, we explore the tendency of countries to converge to IFRS for both public and private companies and present some evidence on the issue from an emerging market. We explore how the legal system – civil vs. common law – and the stock market development stage in a country affects the acceptance of IFRS by the regulators. We find that stock market influences the acceptance of IFRS for both public and private companies while the legal system affects the requirement of IFRS for the private companies. In Turkey, different regulatory bodies control different types of companies. Capital Markets Board that controls the listed companies issued the first set of translated IFRS in 2003. Established in 2002, Turkish Accounting Standards Board (TASB) is responsible to translate and issue the international accounting standards. Examination of issue and effective dates of both standards reveals that TASB closely follows the IASB efforts.