The Effects of IFRS Adoption : A Review of the Early Empirical Evidence

This review documents the conceptual and methodological issues that relate to the domain of financial reporting research that attempts to examine whether there are measurable gains, (if any) stemming from the adoption of international financial reporting standards, (IFRS). It selects and reviews four recent papers from conceptual, research design and policy perspectives. Information content, uncertainty-disclosure, value relevance and earnings and accounting quality studies have all attempted to show the benefits of finer and increased information environments. Notwithstanding the early evidence, this review argues that the papers face both epistemological and research design problems, in that IFRS adoption effect studies do not take cognizance of the contributions of the literatures on financial integration, earnings sustainability and market microstructure