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FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING AND REPORTING IN LEBANON AN EXPLORATION OF ACCOUNTING IN HYPERINFLATIONARY CONDITIONS AND AN INVESTIGATION OF ACCOUNTING TRANSFER TO LESS DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

التبويبات الأساسية

Nabil M.A. BAYDOUN

 

Univ.

East Anglia

Spec.

Accounting

Deg.

Year

#Pages

Ph.D.

1991

488

 

The English-language accounting literature has given little attention to accounting in the Lebanon , accounting under hyper-inflationary conditions and, in general, the relevance of western accounting to a particular developing country . This thesis is intented to go some way towards remedying these deficiencies .The accounting literature supports the truism that no two countries are exactly alike. Nations differ in almost every aspect in their culture, their customs, the extent of their industrialization, etc. And for accounting to reflect the particular circumstances of a particular society, the general conclusion of the literature is that the accounting  system  of any nation must be shaped by the environmental factors specific to that country. If this really does happen, no two accounting  systems of any two nations would be exactly alike.

 Developing countries tend to adopt accounting systems that were established to reflect the particular circumstances of western and  industrialized countries, which have little or nothing in common with developing countries. This thesis will examine the case of Lebanon which has adopted an Accounting system that is largely based on the French Uniform accounting System (U A S).

But Lebanon does not only have different culture; it is and has been suffering acute inflation, in addition to a crippling war. The thesis is organized in three parts. The first part is principally descriptive. It attempt to answer two main questions:

  1. What is the extent of the run down in the Lebanese economy ?
  2. What are the consequences of the war on the Lebanese economy ?

The second part of the thesis explores the effects of inflation on Lebanese financial statements to adjust for general inflation (CPP). This part deals with four main questions:

  1. What are the problems of data collection in Lebanon ?
  2. Do published accounts reflect the run down in the Lebanese economy that occurred during the period 1980-1987 ?
  3. What are the effects of hyper-inflation on companies’ accounts in Lebanon ?
  4. Do other accounting methods, such as CPP , reflect the run down in the Lebanese economy during the period 1980-1987 ?

The third  part of the thesis is intended to propose a way forward for Lebanese accounting. The aim of this part is to answer the following questions:

  1. What should Lebanese accounting look like ?
  2. What are the accounting problems in Lebanon and other developing countries ?
  3. Are western accounting systems relevant to developing countries ?
  4. Is the UAS relevant to the liberal economy of Lebanon and the needs of the Lebanese people ?
  5. Why are Lebanon and most developing countries, apparently unable to develop their own accounting systems ?
  6. What are the culture differences between Lebanon and France, for whom the UAS was originally developed ?

Finally this thesis concludes that Lebanon must not adopt without serious modifications a western accounting system, but can learn from the international economic system – GAAP maybe more appropriate than UAS. Further and more immediate, Whatever system is used it seems clear that:

  1. Continued reliance on HCA is inappropriate, and
  2. Accounting information must be adjust for inflation.