This paper describes and analyzes the issues of financial reporting and corporate communication in connection with corporate governance. The analysis is based on the studies conducted in the Anglo-American and the European academic literature both from a normative and a positive perspective. It...

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and their predecessor, International Accounting Standards (IAS) are gaining in worldwide recognition. All publicly traded companies in the EU must adopt them by 2005 and many other countries either have adopted them or plan to do so in the near...

Motivated by the debate about globally uniform accounting standards, this paper investigates whether firms using US GAAP vis-a-vis IAS exhibit differences in several proxies for information asymmetry. The study exploits a unique setting where the two sets of standards are put on a level playing...

Despite the increasing integration of global capital markets, there is little evidence on the valuation properties of cross-listed, non-U.S. firms' accounting variables. We use the relative performance of the earnings capitalization, the book value, and the residual income valuation models to...

We investigate (1) whether the variation in accounting standards across national boundaries relative to International Accounting Standards (IAS) has an impact on the ability of financial analysts to forecast non-US firms' earnings accurately, and (2) whether analyst forecast accuracy changes...

Using financial accounting data from manufacturing firms in 16 countries for 1986-1995, we demonstrate that the value relevance of financial reports is lower for countries where the financial systems are bank-oriented rather than market-oriented; where private sector bodies are not involved in...

This paper investigates the accounting and disclosure practices of Ramp;D firms in the discretionary reporting environment of Australia, by examining the relationship between the investment opportunity sets of high research intensive versus low research intensive firms and the mapping to...

This paper presents and compares results from two empirical studies into the attitudes of financial executives of large German corporations towards a global harmonization of accounting principles and towards the adaptation of German accounting to Anglo-American Standards. The first of the...

The paper provides comments on three significant issues facing New Zealand standard setters as the world enters the new millennium. These issues are (i) the funding of accounting standard setting; (ii) harmonising with standards of overseas jurisdictions; and (iii) meeting the information...

In this study we compare the timeliness and conservatism of reported earnings across the U.S. and U.K. GAAP regimes. We present a theoretical model of the differential speeds of recognition of good news and bad news. This suggests informative and relatively robust ways of measuring dimensions of...