Essays on International Accounting Diversity

Increasing globalization of business and competition, as well as enormous technological developments, resulted in firms experiencing unprecedented business challenges. Not only did the accounting community undergo structural and professional changes to face the new challenges, but also the kind of technical issues accountants have to handle are becoming increasingly "international" . This two-essay manuscript discusses two of the most salient accounting issues. The first revolves around the increasing diversity of accounting standards worldwide and the undergoing efforts at harmonizing these efforts. The second essay discusses one mechanism through which income of a foreign subsidiary is manipulated by the headquarters of a multinational corporation, termed "transfer pricing". A parent company with subsidiaries exchanging resources is bound to deal with the complex transfer pricing issues. Some of the issues related to transfer pricing include: managerial performance evaluation, home and host country taxation, resource allocation, local partners relations, production and marketing decisions, and competition in foreign markets.