The Effect of Regulatory Harmonization on Cross-Border Labor Migration: Evidence from the Accounting Profession

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bloomfield, Matthew J.; Brueggemann, Ulf; Christensen, Hans B.; Leuz, Christian
• 署名单位: University of Chicago; Humboldt University of Berlin; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-8456
• DOI: 10.1111/1475-679X.12155
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 35-78
• 关键词: economic consequences; FUTURE-RESEARCH; ifrs adoption; earnings; POLICY; BIAS; SUGGESTIONS; INFORMATION; incentives; disclosure

摘要

The paper examines whether international regulatory harmonization increases cross-border labor migration. To study this question, we analyze European Union initiatives that harmonized accounting and auditing standards. Regulatory harmonization should reduce economic mobility barriers, essentially making it easier for accounting professionals to move across countries. Our research design compares the cross-border migration of accounting professionals relative to tightly matched other professionals before and after regulatory harmonization. We find that international labor migration in the accounting profession increases significantly relative to other professions. We provide evidence that this effect is due to harmonization, rather than increases in the demand for accounting services during the implementation of the rule changes. The findings illustrate that diversity in rules constitutes an economic barrier to cross-border labor mobility and, more specifically, that accounting harmonization can have a meaningful effect on cross-border migration.