We begin by comparing accounting quality metrics for firms applying IAS to those applying non-U.S. domestic standards in die period after the firms applying IAS adopt IAS, that is, the postadoption period. This permits us to test whether firms applying IAS have higher accounting quality than firms that do not. We find that in the postadoption period firms applying IAS generally evidence less earnings management, more timely loss recognition, and more value relevance of accounting amounts than do firms not applying IAS. In particular, firms applying IAS have a higher variance of the change in net income, less negative correlation between accruals and cash flows, higher frequency of large negative net income, and higher value relevance of net income and equity book value for share prices, with each of these differences being significant. In addition, they have a higher rado of the variances of change in net income and change in cash flow, lower frequency of small positive net income, and higher value relevance of net income for good news stock returns, although these differences are not significant.