Download or read book Does Mandatory Adoption of IFRS Enhance Earnings Quality? Evidence from Closer to Home written by Gopal V. Krishnan and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The global accounting convergence and the potential adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by the U.S. is a timely topic. We contribute to the literature by examining a more recent mandatory IFRS adoption by U.S.'s largest trading partner, Canada. Canadian GAAP (CGAAP) are considered a close substitute for U.S. GAAP. One key feature of this setting is that two earnings numbers are available for fiscal year 2010 since Canadian firms were required to reconcile earnings under CGAAP with earnings under IFRS. We run a “horse race” of earnings quality between earnings under CGAAP and IFRS. We find that on average, relative to IFRS-earnings, earnings under CGAAP has greater association with next period cash flows and higher persistence. Further, when the difference between earnings under CGAAP and IFRS is large, IFRS-earnings is less value-relevant and less persistent. In short, the results strongly support the notion that higher earnings quality is associated with CGAAP. Finally, our results indicate that differences between CGAAP and IFRS with regard to accounting for financial instruments and investments significantly impair the quality of IFRS-earnings. Our findings are potentially informative to current policy debates on the possible use of IFRS by U.S. firms.