The degree of harmonization of accounting practices within Jordan

Abstract EN

-This study has been carried out to reword the degree of harmonization of accounting practices already taking place in Jordan, and with analyzing the best option for Jordan to achieve accounting harmonization.

A survey of accounting practices in Jordan is made of the consistency and change in measurement methods used over the period 2000-2002.

Two statistical tools were used.

The Chi-square test is used to assess whether the measurement practices by companies in Jordan are significantly different, and the C-index is used to find the degree of harmonization within Jordan in order to determine what factors appear to have influenced comparability.

The results indicated that the Jordanian accounting practices concerning inventory valuation and costing, goodwill, research and development costs, fixed assets valuation, depreciation, long term investments, investments in associates and foreign current translation are not significantly different.

The results also show that the Jordanian accounting practices concerning the amortization of research and development costs and current investments are significantly different.

And these results also show that accounting practices concerning inventory valuation, goodwill, research and development costs, fixed assets, depreciation have a high level of comparability, while the accounting practices concerning inventory costing, amortization of research and development costs, current investments, investments in associates, foreign currency translation and exchange differences have a low level of comparability.

It is noticed that the two techniques used (the Chi-square test and the C-index) do not indicate the same results concerning any differences in the accounting practices all over time.

Moreover, the study concluded that the elimination of the options provided by the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) could be the best solution to increase the degree of harmonization within Jordan