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Why do private firms adopt IFRS?

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  • Moritz Bassemir

Abstract

Do private firms voluntarily adopt IFRS? If so, why? Answers to these questions have been very limited so far, mainly due to the absence of financial data on private firms. In this paper, I exploit the German setting where the financial statements of private firms are widely available. I estimate multi-period logit regressions on the choice between national GAAP and IFRS for the consolidated financial statements of nearly 3000 German private firms with more than 14,000 firm-years in the period 1998–2010. My results suggest that the expected net benefits of IFRS adoption vary substantially across the group of private firms, depending on their financing needs, governance system, and organizational and informational complexity. Specifically, I find that private firms using IFRS have more growth opportunities, are more leveraged, are externally rated, seek to raise external capital by issuing public bonds or equity, are registered as a stock corporation, are characterized by private equity (PE) involvement, have more international sales and operations, and have a Big Five auditor. These insights should be of great interest to both preparers and regulators in the current debate about the future of financial reporting in private firms.

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  • Moritz Bassemir, 2018. "Why do private firms adopt IFRS?," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(3), pages 237-263, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:acctbr:v:48:y:2018:i:3:p:237-263
    DOI: 10.1080/00014788.2017.1357459
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    7. Costanza Fabio, 2018. "Voluntary application of IFRS by unlisted companies: evidence from the Italian context," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 15(2), pages 73-86, May.
    8. Bernard, Darren & Burgstahler, David & Kaya, Devrimi, 2018. "Size management by European private firms to minimize proprietary costs of disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 94-122.
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