When the editor asked me to write a commentary on international accounting standards and their role in world capital markets my first thought was quot;what can I add to the debate?quot; In recent years much has been written about the subject by many eminent writers. And the flow of commentary...

This study examines the relevancy of U.S. GAAP and non-U.S. GAAP financial data provided in Form 6-K by 80 foreign firms. The results are inconclusive. The results were not exchange related or report period related. Other tests were performed to determine whether there was a difference between...

The Securities Exchange Commission has introduced a Roadmap that describes a process leading to mandatory use of IFRS by domestic issuers by 2014. The SEC justifies this initiative on the grounds that global standardization yields cost savings and an ultimate gain in comparability, facilitating...

The purpose of this paper is to compare the earnings value relevance between rental and purchase treatments, i.e. to examine whether the capitalization of leases is appropriate in terms of income measurement rather than as recognition on balance sheets. I have chosen to examine a Japanese sample...

Financial institutions have been at the forefront of the debate on the controversial shift in international standards from historical cost accounting to mark-to-market accounting. We show that the trade-offs at stake in this debate are far from one-sided. While the historical cost regime leads...

Importance of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has greatly increased in recent years. Pivotal events include acceptance of IFRS for financial reporting in the European Union in 2005 and the US Securities and Exchange Commission's announcement in late 2007 to accept IFRS for...

Since the start of 2005 all European Union (EU) firms trading in a regulated market are required to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for their consolidated financial accounts. Many more countries will - soon or later - follow suit and adopt IFRS for all listed firms....

The widespread acceptance of International Accounting Standards (IAS)/International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) makes it timely to examine their technical determinants as well as their implications for the accounting profession and the process of accounting harmonization. In this...

There have been calls for different reporting standards for big firms and small firms over the years due to unique attributes and challenges of SMEs especially in the area of financial reporting as well as the increasingly significant roles they play in the economies of most countries. Thus, it...

This paper examines the level of de facto convergence of IFRSs and US GAAP based on Form 20-F reconciliations of 114 EU companies. Our analysis of 1.928 reconciling items illustrates that de facto differences between IFRSs and US GAAP are heterogeneous and often material in both net income and...