L'impact des normes IFRS sur la relation entre le conservatisme et l'efficacité des politiques d'investissement

We test if a higher degree of conservatism is associated with greater investment efficiency (decrease of over- and under-investment) for a sample of French firms, before and after the mandatory adoption of IFRS in 2005. While a theoretical link between conservatism and investment efficiency has previously been established, the question is whether this link still remains after IFRS adoption. We report on a significant decrease in conservatism after the implementation of IFRS. This result is consistent with the results reported by Piot et al. (2011), Ahmed et al. (2013) and André et al. (2013). Our tests show that for the pre-IFRS period, conservatism limited over- and under-investment. For the post-IFRS period, however, conservatism does not seem to play a role in achieving investment efficiency. This paper contributes to the academic and regulatory debate over the economic consequences of the qualitative characteristics of useful financial information and the impact of IFRS adoption. The adoption of IFRS has led to a new equilibrium between the various qualitative characteristics of accounting information, while the costs and benefits remain difficult to measure.