Market globalization in the last two decades has created demand for international
convergence in financial reporting. As a result, over 100 jurisdictions in both developed and
emerging economies have adopted International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or
allowed their publicly listed firms to use IFRS to prepare financial statements.1
Because
IFRS adoption can, in theory, offer several advantages to investors such as more relevant and
internationally comparable financial information and improved firms’ efficiency in
contracting with other parties (Ball 2006), numerous studies have examined the adoption
effects using data primarily from European countries and Australia. While results are mixed,
most studies find positive outcomes of IFRS adoption on earnings quality, analyst forecast
accuracy, market liquidity and Tobin’s Q.2
However, to our knowledge, little, if any, empirical evidence has been documented on
the adoption effects in emerging economies. The objective of this study is to fill the gap. We
select to study China’s adoption of IFRS in 2007 because China’s capital market has a
growing importance in the world economy. More importantly, like many emerging economies,
China’s market and institutional settings are different from those in mature markets. They are
also less compatible with IFRS rules than those in mature markets. For example, IFRS rules
are primarily originated from mature markets where firms engage in market-based arm’s
length exchanges but China’s market emphasizes personal social networks and government
connections. A major feature of IFRS is fair value accounting, which requires a liquid and
well-functioning capital market. However, China’s capital market is still in an early stage of