The Role of International Accounting Standards in Foreign Direct Investment: A Case Study of Russia

Abstract

More than 100 countries are competing for foreign direct investment. One of the factors that adversely affects the ability to attract foreign capital is the lack of credibility of reported financial information. This barrier is especially prevalent in transition economies, since they have not developed the financial reporting infrastructure that developed countries already enjoy. Adopting International Accounting Standards (IAS) is seen as one way to overcome this barrier and many transition economies are adopting or have already adopted IAS as a means of giving credibility to corporate financial statements. All of the former Soviet republics have made some attempt to have their enterprises convert to IAS. Some have been more successful than others, for a variety of reasons. This paper focuses on Russia's attempt to adopt IAS and the problems Russian firms face with the adoption and implementation of IAS.

JEL Classification: D82, F43, G14, M41, M44, M47, O10, P20, P52