The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the mandatory adoption of IFRS/IAS and the information content of earnings in the European Union. More accurately, this study aims to determine if the effect of IFRS adoption on the level of information asymmetry, apprehended by the cost of capital and the financial analysts' forecasts, is immediate or delayed. Based on a longitudinal study, we find evidence that for the two first years of adoption, international standards reduces significantly the cost of capital and the dispersion of the financial analysts' forecasts. Furthermore, the magnitude of this effect increases with increasing the number of years after IFRS adoption. The findings further show that the effect of IFRS adoption on financial analysts' errors is not immediate and that the errors decrease from the third year following the date of the first adoption.Overall, the findings of this study highlight the importance of adopting IFRS in the reduction of information asymmetry. AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the mandatory adoption of IFRS/IAS and the information content of earnings in the European Union. More accurately, this study aims to determine if the effect of IFRS adoption on the level of information asymmetry, apprehended by the cost of capital and the financial analysts' forecasts, is immediate or delayed. Based on a longitudinal study, we find evidence that for the two first years of adoption, international standards reduces significantly the cost of capital and the dispersion of the financial analysts' forecasts. Furthermore, the magnitude of this effect increases with increasing the number of years after IFRS adoption. The findings further show that the effect of IFRS adoption on financial analysts' errors is not immediate and that the errors decrease from the third year following the date of the first adoption.Overall, the findings of this study highlight the importance of adopting IFRS in the reduction of information asymmetry. JEL Classification: M40, G34

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This article examines the direct and indirect impact of the IFRS mandatory adoption on the financial performance of companies. The structural equation method has been applied to all companies that belong to the CAC All tradable index for the period from 2002 to 2012. By measuring financial performance by three measures, namely the Marris ratio, the Tobin Q and the PER ratio, the results show that the imposition of the international standards has no direct effect on the financial performance, its effect is indirect via the cost of capital.

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