Financial Reporting in the Public Sector and the Demand for Information

The public good nature of information in the public sector means that the concept of direct‘user need’as a basis for the development of a conceptual framework for financial reporting needs to be extended to the more general concept of‘individual informational benefits’. Lack of individual demand for financial reporting information does not imply zero potential individual benefit from the use of such information. The achievement of a social optimum in the use of information is likely to require both a well‐grounded conceptual framework for financial reporting and independent monitoring bodies able to make effective use of the information.