Doupnik and Salter (1993) suggest that their hierarchies of microbased
versus macro-uniform countries could act as a blueprint for the
future harmonization of accounting standards, arguing that harmonization
should be easier within, rather than across, families. In some respects,
this prediction has been proven wrong as European countries,
scattered across several branches of the accounting family tree, agreed
to follow one uniform accounting standard, IFRS. However—consistent
with Doupnik and Salter's premise—full integration of IFRS, i.e., a complete
substitution of IFRS for domestic GAAP, may be more challenging
for macro-uniform countries, where accounting practices are closely
tied to national economic policies, than for micro-based countries,
where accounting is more independent of the government.