Les différences comptables entre la Belgique et la France et leur impact sur la valorisation boursière des sociétés belges et françaises sur les places de Bruxelles et Paris

When evaluating the performance of firms in different financial markets, investors should be able to distinguish differences related to company performance from differences that are caused by the use of differing accounting frameworks. International accounting standards might reduce the impact of this last source of variance, but current regulation in Europe is still very variable. This paper describes the major accounting differences between France and Belgium. Although these differences are rather limited in number, some might have a significant impact on the financial statements. The paper then investigates whether there are differences in the performance of listed French and Belgian firms, and how stick differences can be explained. The results of the empirical study on Belgian and French firms quoted on the market of Brussels and Paris reveals that these differences have no impact on their valuation.