Accounting and Financial Globalization

As investment capital has shown increasing disregard for national boundaries, the flow of information on financial markets has become both more complex and more problematic. At the same time, the speed with which markets now respond to events and financial conditions in all parts of the world makes accurate, up-to-the-moment information a crucial element in the investment and accounting picture. This book explores some of the most important effects of information on world financial markets.

Written by an international group of specialists, it takes the form of a dialogue. Each of the five chapters dealing with specific topics is followed by the comments of another writer who offers a slightly different perspective. The first chapter examines the effect of enhanced public disclosure on the welfare of participants in the marketplace. The second chapter provides a framework for analyzing the effects of the globalization of information, particularly the ways in which it influences rates of real interest among countries. Subjects addressed in the chapters that follow include compensating for imperfect information in foreign currency investment and the impact of financial forecasts on stock prices. An authoritative treatment that clarifies some of the most complex issues surrounding the globalization of capital investment, this book will be of particular value to international financial analysts and investment advisers.

Joshua Ronen, PhD, is a Research Professor at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business of New York University, Director of The Vincent C. Ross Institute of Accounting Research, and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance. He has published many monographs and approximately 100 articles in accounting, economics, management science, and behavioral science journals and has lectured at universities and institutions around the world.

Joshua Livnat is Chairman of the Department of Accounting, Taxation and Business Law at the Stern School of Business, New York University. He has authored three books and published numerous articles in scholarly journals, including The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Abacus, Managerial and Decision Economics, and Issues in Accounting Education.