3.2. Sample and descriptive statistics
Our sample consists of 5,460 firm-year observations of mandatory IFRS adopters in 14 EU countries from 2003 to 2004
and 2006 to 2007. We eliminate 2005 to avoid the potentially confounding effects in the transition year. Our baseline
analysis also includes a benchmark sample of 30,520 firm-year observations in ten non-IFRS adoption countries over these
periods. We restrict the mandatory adopters to firms with accounting standards (data item astd) designated as DS prior to
2005 and as DI after 2004, and the non-IFRS adopters to firms with accounting standards designated as DS throughout our
sample period