In this paper, I draw parallels between the literatures on the effects of law on the financial development of countries and on the effects of accounting standards on financial reporting outcomes. My central thesis is that these literatures are complementary in terms of what they have to say...

The adoption of international accounting standards, namely the IFRS, at the country level has sparked two contrasting, but not mutually exclusive, viewpoints. One view is that IFRS engenders better reporting standards and uniform adoption allows for greater comparability. The upshot is that IFRS...

Financial reporting around the time of IPOs is consistent with listed firms reporting more conservatively than previously as private firms, consistent with the results in Ball and Shivakumar (2005). We hypothesize that IPO firms supply the higher quality financial reports demanded by public...

The convergence process of national accounting practices into international standards requires significant changes on accounting regulation. Brazil has many examples of that: the creation of the Brazilian Accounting Standards Committee (CPC), the issuance of the Federal Law 11.638/07, the...

After many years of debating the appropriate treatment for goodwill, Malaysia finally has an enforceable accounting standard on this topic. Applicable for business combinations with reporting dates commencing on or after 1 January 2006, FRS 136 - Impairment of Assets requires that goodwill...

Business Combinations is the first completed joint convergence project of the FASB amp; IASB. The new business combinations standards converge US GAAP and IFRS in all but the calculation of non-controlling interests. Although the accounting community widely acknowledges the benefits of...

This paper seeks to determine the impact of NASB Act 2003 on compliance with accounting standards on employee retirement benefits (SAS 8) in Nigeria. The population of the study is the 182 firms quoted on the first -tier market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). The study utilizes data from a...

In December 2007 the SEC issued a formal rule release that allows foreign-private issuers that employ the IFRS to file their financial statements without providing a reconciliation to U.S. GAAP. While the rule change was made after the SEC received and analyzed comments from various constituents...

The introduction of an impairment test for goodwill under IFRS is seen as another step toward moving financial accounting and reporting from its traditional historical cost paradigm to one of fair value. This regulatory change has been the subject of a growing body of literature which has often...

The current study examines the voluntary disclosures (provided in the U.S.) by U.S.-listed Asian companies. Our findings indicate that significantly fewer [greater] voluntary disclosures are provided by U.S.-listed Asian companies from countries which have a strict [less strict] mandatory...