Proponents further suggest that with improved comparability of firms across markets,IFRS makes it easier and less costly for investors to compare firms in which they may consider investing.Increased comparability is primarily the result of a decrease in discretionary accounting rules included in IFRS.The effect of adoption on firms domiciled in countries with traditional standards similar to that of IFRS is expected to be small. However,even though improvements in the quality of financial information reported after IFRS adoption may be negligible or non-existent,increased comparability may lead to greater cross-country information for investors and thus increased investment
Recent studies suggest that role of accounting standards in financial reporting is limited,and that firms'incentives are a much greater deteminant of the quality of reporting Many argue that the application of financial reporting standards involves considerable judgement,regardless of the standards applied.Further,IFRS is based on the concept of fair-value accounting,leading to greater discretion and subjective judgement by accountants than in the traditional GAAP of most countries.Therefore,prior research suggests that hte quality of financial reporting is directly correlated to firms'incentives to report opportunistically
Daske et al.(2008:p.1094) suggest that,ceteris paribus,countries with"stricter enforcement regimes and institutional structures that provide strong reporting incentives are more likely to exhibit discernible capital-market effects around the introduction of IFRS reporting"That is,stricter enforcement leads to discernible benefits from IFRS adoption.Through empirical examination of 26 countries mandatorily adopting IFRS,daske et al.2008 find that the benefits of IFRS adoption are only observed in capital-markets of countries with strict enforcement