Translation of IFRS: Language as a barrier to comparability

Esperanza Huerta, Yanira Petrides and Gary P. Braun

Research in Accounting Regulation, 2013, vol. 25, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: This study examines the translation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) from the official English version into Spanish by Mexican professional accountants. The use of IFRS in languages other than English creates the potential for translation differences that may introduce variation in accounting outcomes when different languages are used. In particular, given the move toward principles-based standards, with the corresponding increase in the proportion of generic phrases, the consistent translation of these terms is likely to become increasingly important. Thirty-eight participants translated (from English to Spanish) a total of 47 phrases excerpted from five different IFRS. Consistent with our hypotheses, we find that translations of accounting-specific phrases have less variation in translation than generic phrases, as exhibited by greater inter-rater agreement and lower relative dispersion.

Keywords: International Financial Reporting Standards; Translation; Linguistic theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1052045712000501
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reacre:v:25:y:2013:i:1:p:1-12

DOI: 10.1016/j.racreg.2012.11.007

Access Statistics for this article

Research in Accounting Regulation is currently edited by G. Previts

More articles in Research in Accounting Regulation from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().