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

Arbeitspapier

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.

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• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 5661

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Household Behavior: General ; Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity ; International Migration ; International Institutional Arrangements ; Economic Impacts of Globalization: Labor ; Professional Labor Markets; Occupational Licensing ; Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers ; Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion ; Business and Securities Law ; Personal, Professional, and Business Services ; Accounting ; Auditing
• Subject: accounting harmonization ; regulation ; IFRS ; European Union ; labor migration and mobility

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Bloomfield, Matthew J. ; Brüggemann, Ulf ; Christensen, Hans B. ; Leuz, Christian
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2015

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/128369