Meta‐analysis of the Impact of Adoption of IFRS on Financial Reporting Comparability, Market Liquidity, and Cost of Capital

Solomon Opare, Muhammad Nurul Houqe and Tony van Zijl

Abacus, 2021, vol. 57, issue 3, 502-556

Abstract: A large number of empirical studies have addressed the effects of adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), but the results have been mixed. We use a meta‐analysis of 56 empirical studies with 1,265 effect sizes to determine the impact of adoption of IFRS on financial reporting comparability, market liquidity, cost of equity, and cost of debt. This approach provides an objective view of the empirical results, in contrast to narrative reviews which offer subjective conclusions. We find that IFRS adoption has increased financial reporting comparability and market liquidity, and reduced the cost of equity. For cost of debt, a decrease is observed only for voluntary adoption. Our meta‐regression analysis explains the variation in the observed effect of adoption of IFRS across mandatory and voluntary adoption of IFRS, and choice of measures, control variables, estimation methods, and the strength of the empirical results. We emphasize the importance of these study characteristics and call for further studies focusing on the cost of debt and also studies using recent data to reflect the changes in IFRS. This study should be of interest to regulators and policymakers as they are expected to assess the impacts of adoption of IFRS.

Date: 2021
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