Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/128369 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 5661
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
The paper examines whether international regulatory harmonization increases cross-border labor migration. To study this question, we analyze European Union (EU) 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.
Subjects: 
accounting harmonization
regulation
IFRS
European Union
labor migration and mobility
JEL: 
D10
E24
F22
F55
F66
J44
J61
J62
K22
L84
M41
M42
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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