The materiality of consolidated financial reporting - an alternative approach to IPSASB

Today, municipalities can make use of different organisational models and legal entities in order to perform their duties and services towards their citizens. Several scholars and standard setters, e.g., IPSASB, argue that the picture of a municipality’s financial position and performance is affected by the definition of the reporting entity and that there is a need for consolidated financial reporting in order to give the whole-of-government picture. Sweden is one of the few countries that actually have introduced consolidated financial reporting. By using data from annual reports, we analyse how consolidated reporting affects the financial picture and the comparability of financial data between different municipalities.