. In fact, empirical studies provide some support to the notion that adopting IAS/IFRS improves the quality of financial reporting, thereby increasing its usefulness to investors. The second main finding is that these effects differ according to the institutional setting of firms adopting IAS/IFRS. Factors different from accounting regulation play a key role in determining financial reporting quality and have actually led to an application of IAS/IFRS, which is not uniform across Europe, with consequences on accounting quality both in absolute and relative terms. Empirical findings suggest that cross-country differences in accounting are also likely to remain after IAS/IFRS adoption.