Macroeconomic evidence on the impact of mandatory IFRS adoption on equity and debt markets

This study investigates whether mandatory IFRS adoption is associated with increased foreign portfolio investment into the adopting country's debt and equity markets. Using macroeconomic data and a pre-post design centered in 2005, we find that IFRS adoption has a significantly greater effect on foreign debt than on foreign equity investment flows. This result is consistent with the notion that debt investors are greater consumers of financial statement information. We find that the increase in foreign equity investment around IFRS adoption is limited to countries that had higher governance quality, economic development, and creditor rights prior to adoption. In contrast, the increase in foreign debt investment around IFRS adoption is significant for all adopting countries independent of these characteristics. Finally, we find that the increase in foreign equity investment derives primarily from the U.S., whereas the increase in foreign debt investment derives from the U.S. and other non-adopting countries. The evidence that increases in foreign investment originate from non-adopting countries rather than other adopting countries suggests that the benefits from mandatory IFRS adoption more likely reflect improved financial reporting quality rather than greater financial statement comparability. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.