Clemense Ehoff

How to Incorporate a Securities & Exchange Commission Staff Paper into an International Accounting Course

This proposal shows how a recent SEC Staff Paper which outlines the differences between U.S. and international accounting standards can be used in an International Accounting course. We begin by outlining how the Staff Paper lists the differences between U.S. generally-accepted-accounting-principles (GAAP) versus International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The Staff Paper is a useful teaching resource because it is comprehensive, compact, and timely. It is comprehensive in that it lists over 100 individual GAAP/IFRS differences organized under 29 sections, yet the 50-page document is freely available on line, and it is timely as of November 2011. We also present a pedagogic tool to help students organize the GAAP/IFRS differences across three conservatism dimensions and two qualitative dimensions.