Has Global Financial Reporting Comparability Improved?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Conaway, Jenelle K.
• 署名单位: George Mason University
• 刊物名称: CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0823-9150
• DOI: 10.1111/1911-3846.12796
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 2825-2860
• 关键词: MANDATORY IFRS ADOPTION; statement comparability; information asymmetry; accounting standards; HOME BIAS; cost; management; EFFICIENCY; earnings

摘要

Motivated by ongoing worldwide efforts to improve the comparability of accounting information, I examine the temporal trend in global financial reporting comparability. Regulators have made serious efforts to improve comparability, but numerous frictions may have limited their effectiveness. Accordingly, I examine the time-series properties of comparability measures for a sample of the 36 largest economies and provide two key empirical insights consistent with expectations. First, I confirm comparability is increasing over 2002-2018. Second, I document that this increase primarily occurs in firms applying local accounting standards, as opposed to those applying global standards (defined as either US GAAP or IFRS). Additional analyses reveal that: (i) firms applying local standards are becoming more comparable to firms applying IFRS but not to those applying US GAAP, and (ii) comparability within global-standards firms is not changing. I also document that certain market liquidity benefits of comparability are sustained in the long term, as firms increasing comparability over the sample period experience greater reductions in bid-ask spread and zero-return trading days relative to those decreasing comparability. Overall, the results reveal that comparability has increased-consistent with systematic regulatory efforts-but that this increase arises heterogeneously across firms, with the primary effects in recent years occurring among those applying local standards.