The authors find that ‘French and German IFRS earnings and book values are comparable in the year subsequent to IFRS adoption, but become less comparable in the years that follow.’ They suggest that ‘the relative comparability [in the year following adoption] is due to firms structuring their balance sheets in similar ways upon IFRS adoption’. They ‘conjecture the diminishing comparability of IFRS earnings and book values is due to French and German managers making different implicit and explicit accounting choices’. In support of this, the authors ‘document differences in accounting estimates, recognition of special items, and other equity reserves between French and German firms that help explain the decrease in comparability over time.’