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

Matthew J. Bloomfield, Ulf Brüggemann, Hans B. Christensen and Christian Leuz

No 20888, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

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.

JEL-codes: D10 E24 F22 F55 F66 J44 J61 J62 K22 L84 M41 M42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc, nep-lma, nep-mac and nep-mig
Note: CF ED LS
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published as Matthew J. Bloomfield & Ulf Brüggemann & Hans B. Christensen & Christian Leuz, 2017. "The Effect of Regulatory Harmonization on Cross-Border Labor Migration: Evidence from the Accounting Profession," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 35-78, March.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w20888.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Effect of Regulatory Harmonization on Cross‐Border Labor Migration: Evidence from the Accounting Profession (2017)
Working Paper: The Effect of Regulatory Harmonization on Cross-border Labor Migration: Evidence from the Accounting Profession (2015)
Working Paper: The Effect of Regulatory Harmonization on Cross-border Labor Migration: Evidence from the Accounting Profession (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20888

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w20888

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().