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We examine whether application of International Accounting Standards (IAS) is associated with higher accounting quality. The application of IAS reflects combined effects of features of the financial reporting system, including standards, their interpretation, enforcement, and litigation. We find that firms applying IAS from 21 countries generally evidence less earnings management, more timely loss recognition, and more value relevance of accounting amounts than do matched sample firms applying non-U.S. domestic standards. Differences in accounting quality between the two groups of firms in the period before the IAS firms adopt IAS do not account for the postadoption differences. Firms applying IAS generally evidence an improvement in accounting quality between the pre-and postadoption periods. Although we cannot be sure our findings are attributable to the change in the financial reporting system rather than to changes in firms' incentives and the economic environment, we include research design features to mitigate effects of both. * Graduate School of Business, Stanford University; †Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina. We appreciate helpful comments from

We compare characteristics of accounting amounts for firms that apply International Accounting Standards (IAS) to a matched sample of firms that do not to investigate whether applying IAS is associated with higher accounting quality and lower equity cost of capital. We find that firms applying IAS evidence less earnings management, more timely loss recognition, and more value relevance of accounting amounts than do those applying domestic GAAP. Firms applying IAS have higher variance of the change in net income, a higher ratio of the variances of the change in net income and change in cash flows, a significantly less negative correlation between accruals and cash flows, and a lower frequency of small positive net income. They have a significantly higher frequency of large negative net income and generally higher value relevance of accounting amounts. Differences between firms applying IAS and those applying domestic GAAP in the period before IAS firms adopt IAS do not explain the differences in accounting quality. Firms applying IAS generally exhibit higher accounting quality than when they previously applied domestic GAAP. The increase in accounting quality for IAS firms is generally greater than that for firms applying domestic GAAP throughout the sample period. We also find weak evidence suggesting that application of IAS is associated with a lower equity cost of capital. Overall, our results suggest improvement in accounting quality associated with applying IAS.

We compare US firms' earnings with reconciled earnings for cross listed non-US firms. Non-US firms' earnings exhibit more evidence of smoothing, greater tendency to manage towards a target, lower association with share price and less timely recognition of losses. Firms from countries with weaker investor protection show more evidence of earnings management, suggesting that SEC regulation does not supplant the effect of local environment. There is more evidence of earnings management for firms reconciling to US GAAP than for those preparing local accounts in accordance with US GAAP, but both show more evidence of earnings management than US firms.JEL classification: G18; M41; M43; M44

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