The economic analysis in Part I is organized as follows. We start by delineating, in general terms, the conceptual underpinnings for our analysis. First, we discuss the costs and benefits of improving the quality and comparability of firms’ financial reporting and disclosure practices. Next, we discuss the role of accounting standards, relative to other factors, for achieving highquality and comparable financial reporting. Together, these two discussions form an economic framework that we then apply to the question of IFRS adoption in the United States. After highlighting the unique institutional features of the U.S. setting, we analyze the potential costs and benefits of IFRS adoption to U.S. firms and investors and examine the macroeconomic consequences of such a move. Part I concludes with a summary of the key insights of our economic analysis. In Part II of this two-part series see Hail et al. 2010, we extend our analysis to related policy and political issues, present several scenarios for the future evolution of U.S. accounting
standards, and outline opportunities for future research on U.S. and global accounting standards and regulation..