We test the assertion that a consequence of voluntarily adopting International Accounting Standards (IAS) is the enhanced ability to attract foreign capital. Using a unique database that reports firm-level holdings of over 25,000 mutual funds from around the world, our multivariate tests find...

The purpose of this paper is to provide some new evidence on the relationship between disclosure and the cost of equity capital. We propose a new specification for the empirical test based on the idea that in the previous models one crucial variable was missing: accounting policy choice. We test...

The effects of trading Level I ADRs in the US OTC market were investigated for 119 firms from Hong Kong, the United Kingdom (UK), Australia, Japan, South Africa, Germany and Brazil during the period February 1992 to April 2001. Since firms that undertake Level I ADR programs do not reconcile...

The ultimate objective of the financial statement is the give reliable information, which is to be relevant and therefore useful in economic decisions making. Thus a company which operates in different industrial sectors and geographical areas need to provide information about its various...

Using a sample from 22 countries, I investigate the relations between the accuracy of analysts' earnings forecasts and the level of annual report disclosure; and between forecast accuracy and the degree of enforcement of accounting standards. I document that firm-level disclosures are positively...

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...

This study examines the liability hedging characteristics of both direct and indirect real estate, in the advent of fair value accounting obligations for pension funds. We explicitly model pension obligations as being subject to interest and inflation risk to analyze the ability of real estate...

Using a sample of non-U.S. borrowers from 40 countries during 1997ndash;2005, this paper investigates the effect of the voluntary adoption of International FinancialReporting Standards (IFRS) on price and non-price terms of loan contracts and loan ownership structure in the international loan...

The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between disclosure and liquidity. Previous empirical tests have focused only on US markets and have used standard least square estimation techniques even in the presence of panel data. We analyse a market (Madrid Stock Exchange) with special...

Firms widely use graphs in their financial reports. In this respect, prior research demonstrates that companies use graphs to provide a favorable outlook of performance, suggesting that they try to manage the impression created in users' perceptions. This study tests whether by means of...