The United States of America uses a type of rule-based accounting standards called GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) while over 110 countries around the world abide by a principle-based accounting system called IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards). There are some differences between the frameworks of the two accounting standards, but there are also a striking amount of similarities. A question then arises: why does most of the world use IFRS while the United States uses GAAP?
