The question we address is whether application of International Accounting Standards (IAS) is associated with higher accounting quality than application of non-U.S. domestic standards. In particular, we investigate whether accounting amounts of firms that apply IAS exhibit less earnings management, more timely loss recognition, and higher value relevance than accounting amounts of firms that apply domestic standards. The accounting amounts that we compare result from the interaction of features of the financial reporting system, which include accounting standards and their interpretation, enforcement, and litigation. Because our interest is in the quality of the accounting amounts that result from the financial reporting system, we make no attempt to determine the relative contribution of each of its features. We refer to the combined effect of tire features of the financial reporting system as the effect of application of IAS. Our results indicate that firms applying IAS have higher accounting quality than firms that do not and that accounting quality improves after firms adopt IAS