Using the data for the whole period 2001–2005, the authors ‘find some evidence that the cost of capital is lower … for those [firms] that adopted IFRS for the first time in 2005 [ie, mandatory adopters] (relative to non-IFRS firms). However, the effects are small in magnitude, depend on the choice of benchmark sample and are not robust to the introduction of firm-fixed effects.’ The authors note that ‘It is possible that the results are weakened due to anticipation effects in the market prior to mandatory IFRS reporting’. This possibility is explored in Daske et al (2008) – see Panel 5.8.