The Influence of Country, Industry, and Topic Factors on IFRS Policy Choice

Abacus, 50(4), 2014, 386-421

54 Pages Posted: 10 Jul 2014 Last revised: 18 Dec 2014

See all articles by Christian Stadler

Christian Stadler

University of London - Royal Holloway College

Christopher William Nobes

University of London - Royal Holloway College

Abstract

This paper proposes a framework for understanding management’s decision-making on observable accounting policy choices. The framework is used to hypothesise how country, industry and topic factors influence policy choice under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The hypotheses are tested on the choices made by the largest firms from ten jurisdictions on a comprehensive set of IFRS policy topics, which are hand-collected from the financial statements. The results are consistent with the framework: country factors are particularly influential when the choice does not affect an important accounting number; and industry and topic factors influence the choice on some topics. Overall, we find that country factors have the greatest influence on IFRS policy choice.

Keywords: accounting choice, IFRS, international differences

JEL Classification: M41

Suggested Citation

Stadler, Christian and Nobes, Christopher William, The Influence of Country, Industry, and Topic Factors on IFRS Policy Choice. Abacus, 50(4), 2014, 386-421, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2463878

Christian Stadler (Contact Author)

University of London - Royal Holloway College ( email )

Egham
Surrey, Egham TW20 0EX
United Kingdom

Christopher William Nobes

University of London - Royal Holloway College ( email )

School of Management
Royal Holloway
Egham, TW20 0EX
United Kingdom

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