Accrual accounting at different levels of the public sector: A systematic literature review
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-1-2022
Abstract
This paper has two main objectives. Firstly, it reviews relevant literature on the experiences of different levels of governments worldwide in adopting public sector accrual accounting (PSAA). Secondly, it critically analyses these studies and seeks to identify gaps in the extant literature to provide suggestions for future research. We reviewed and analysed 136 peer-reviewed journal articles on PSAA over a 23-year period spanning different levels of government worldwide. Our review and analysis suggest that the adoption of PSAA by different levels of government worldwide has been a long and complex process requiring possibly substantial implementation costs that are undisclosed to the public. Owing to the absence of high-quality research providing empirical evidence of the benefits of PSAA, we conclude that thus far, the benefits of PSAA to government and citizens have yet to be substantiated. A limitation of this paper is that it is confined to the keywords used in the literature search. Nonetheless, the approach of aggregating and analysing these articles collectively allows this paper to not only provide useful insights into understanding the determinants and outcomes of PSAA but also to offer meaningful directions for future research with regards to multi-level PSAA.
Keywords
Local-governments, Financial information, Earnings management, Library collections, New-Zealand, Reform, Implementation, Universities, Standards, Adoption
Divisions
Faculty_of_Business_and_Accountancy
Funders
Malaysian Accountancy Research and Education Foundation (MAREF) (Grant No: PRT2/2019/4/A)
Publication Title
Australian Accounting Review
Volume
32
Issue
1
Publisher
WILEY
Publisher Location
111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA