Using the data for 2001–2005, the authors find an increase in the cost of equity capital in the year of IFRS adoption for mandatory adopters. They note that this may ‘stem from transition effects, such as temporary difficulties in forecasting earnings’. They also note that it is possible that the market had anticipated benefits from mandatory IFRS adoption. Consistent with this hypothesis, they find that ‘the cost of capital decreases by 26 basis points … when we measure the effect one year before the mandatory adoption date’.