Korea has also reformed its external auditing functions. The influence of owner/managers in appointing auditors has been reduced; in fact a mandatory hearing is required when dismissing an auditor, and preparation of an external audit of combined financial statements of the 30 largest chaebols is now required. The Korean accounting and auditing reforms in the late 1990s were numerous and occurred over a short period of time. Do the accounting reforms in Korea explain why the country has recovered faster and more fully than any other country in the region from the financial crisis? Korea has arguably implemented more accounting reforms than any other East Asian country. At the firm level, what effects have the accounting reforms had on the value relevance of accountingnumbers and the transparency and comparability of annual reports?