IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/coacre/v30y2013i4p1344-1372.html

Does Mandatory Adoption of IFRS Improve Accounting Quality? Preliminary Evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Anwer S. Ahmed
  • Michael Neel
  • Dechun Wang

Abstract

We provide evidence on the preliminary effects of mandatory adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on accounting quality for a relatively broad set of firms from 20 countries that adopted IFRS in 2005 relative to a benchmark group of firms from countries that did not adopt IFRS matched on the strength of legal enforcement, industry, size, book‐to‐market, and accounting performance. Relative to these benchmark firms, we find that IFRS firms exhibit significant increases in income smoothing and aggressive reporting of accruals, and a significant decrease in timeliness of loss recognition; however we do not find significant differences across IFRS and benchmark firms in meeting or beating earnings targets. Our findings contrast with findings in earlier studies which suggest that IFRS adoption leads to increased accounting quality. Our findings primarily hold for firms in strong enforcement countries, which suggests that enforcement mechanisms in these countries were not able to counter the initial effects of greater flexibility in IFRS relative to domestic GAAP.

Suggested Citation

  • Anwer S. Ahmed & Michael Neel & Dechun Wang, 2013. "Does Mandatory Adoption of IFRS Improve Accounting Quality? Preliminary Evidence," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1344-1372, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:coacre:v:30:y:2013:i:4:p:1344-1372
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1911-3846.2012.01193.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1911-3846.2012.01193.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1911-3846.2012.01193.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Holger Daske & Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz & Rodrigo Verdi, 2008. "Mandatory IFRS Reporting around the World: Early Evidence on the Economic Consequences," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 46(5), pages 1085-1142, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leye Li & Louise Yi Lu & Dongyue Wang, 2022. "External labour market competitions and stock price crash risk: evidence from exposures to competitor CEOs’ award‐winning events," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(S1), pages 1421-1460, April.
    2. Stolowy, Hervé & Jeanjean, Thomas & Erkens, Michael, 2011. "The economic consequences of increasing the international visibility of financial reports," HEC Research Papers Series 957, HEC Paris.
    3. Paolo Panteghini, 2026. "A Bargaining Theory of the Leverage-Profitability Relationship," CESifo Working Paper Series 12639, CESifo.
    4. Lucian MUNTEANU, 2011. "Cost Of Equity, Financial Information Disclosure, And Ifrs Adoption: A Literature Review," Internal Auditing and Risk Management, Athenaeum University of Bucharest, vol. 24(4), pages 67-80, december.
    5. Suman Banerjee & Saul Estrin & Sarmistha Pal, 2022. "Corporate disclosure, compliance and consequences: evidence from Russia," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(17), pages 1770-1802, November.
    6. Yhlas Sovbetov, 2025. "How IFRS Affects Value Relevance and Key Financial Indicators? Evidence from the UK," Papers 2512.02480, arXiv.org.
    7. Paugam, Luc, 2011. "Valorisation et reporting du goodwill : enjeux théoriques et empiriques," Economics Thesis from University Paris Dauphine, Paris Dauphine University, number 123456789/8007 edited by Casta, Jean-François.
    8. Diantimala, Yossi & Wijayana, Singgih, 2024. "Compliance and familiarity with fixed assets' disclosure requirements and firm value," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    9. Xiao Li & Jeffrey Ng & Walid Saffar, 2021. "Financial Reporting and Trade Credit: Evidence from Mandatory IFRS Adoption," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 96-128, March.
    10. Akisik, Orhan & Gal, Graham, 2023. "IFRS, financial development and income inequality: An empirical study using mediation analysis," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(2).
    11. Liu, Baohua & Huang, Dan & Chen, Tao & Chan, Kam C., 2023. "Mandatory R&D disclosure and analyst forecast Accuracy: Evidence from an emerging market," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3).
    12. Aboud, Ahmed & Brandon, Sonia & Bassyouny, Hesham & Papadimitri, Panagiota & Abdelfattah, Tarek, 2025. "Social capital, corporate governance, and earnings management: Cross-country evidence," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    13. Hyunmi Ji, 2019. "The Impact of Interest Coverage Ratio on Value Relevance of Reported Earnings: Evidence from South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-11, December.
    14. Terry Shevlin, 2013. "Some personal observations on the debate on the link between financial reporting quality and the cost of equity capital," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 38(3), pages 447-473, December.
    15. Jiao, Tao & Koning, Miriam & Mertens, Gerard & Roosenboom, Peter, 2012. "Mandatory IFRS adoption and its impact on analysts' forecasts," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 56-63.
    16. Lang, Mark & Maffett, Mark, 2011. "Transparency and liquidity uncertainty in crisis periods," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 101-125.
    17. Donal Byard & Ying Li & Yong Yu, 2011. "The Effect of Mandatory IFRS Adoption on Financial Analysts’ Information Environment," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 49(1), pages 69-96, March.
    18. Muhammad Ansar Majeed & Irfan Ullah & Samia Tariq & Tanveer Ahsan, 2025. "Does brand capital improve stock liquidity? Evidence from China," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 382-404, January.
    19. Renhui Fu & Fang Gao & Yi Zhao, 2024. "The capital market consequences of stock market liberalisation: Evidence from Mainland‐Hong Kong Stock Connect Programs in China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 64(4), pages 3275-3299, December.
    20. Keryn Chalmers & Greg Clinch & Jayne M Godfrey, 2011. "Changes in value relevance of accounting information upon IFRS adoption: Evidence from Australia," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 36(2), pages 151-173, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:coacre:v:30:y:2013:i:4:p:1344-1372. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1911-3846 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.