مروری بر بحث های کنونی در زمینه عوامل و عواقب تصویب IFRS اجباری A review of the current debate on the determinants and consequences of mandatory IFRS adoption

1. Introduction The widespread adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), especially since 2005, has arguably been one of the most important developments in the history of accounting. As of April 22, 2016, 131 jurisdictions around the world either permit or require IFRS for domestic listed firms (Delloite, 2016). Certainly, governments, investors, auditors, accountants, business entities, and others have shown a great deal of interest in understanding IFRS. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to review the literature on the determinants and consequences of IFRS adoption.1 A google scholar search on April 22, 2016 using the term “IFRS adoption” alone produced 23,800 results of which 1,250 papers had the search term IFRS adoption in the title. It is a daunting task to review such a vast and still growing body of literature, so this survey do not review every single paper published in journals (or available in electronic form), but rather, restrict our focus to the key issues identified to have effects on IFRS adoption. As the economic consequences of adopting a new set of accounting standards (such as IFRS) are intertwined with the institutional setting of the adopting country, any analysis of the economic consequences of IFRS adoption would require knowledge of the institutional backgrounds of the countries which adopted the IFRS (Judge, Li and Pinsker, 2010). Thus, before reviewing the literature on economic consequences, we briefly outline the key country-specific characteristics associated with IFRS adoption. Economic consequences are also related to the intended purpose or expected benefits of IFRS adoption, given that this is what researchers have explored in identifying and recording economic consequences. Despite wide-spread adoption of IFRS, accounting and financial reporting continues to remain diverse across countries. Differences in accounting practice stem from the fact that each country has a diverse set of information needs because of unique legal, economic, social and political contexts (Ball, 2001, Brown, 2011; Brown and Clinch, 1998), and these result in different accounting standards being prepared (Zeff, 2007). Disparate financial reporting and accounting practices make it very difficult for users of accounting and financial reports to consolidate such information and make comparisons of firms that are listed in different countries (Prather-Kinsey, 2006). In addition, as financial markets become ever more interdependent, there is a greater need for the development of internationally recognized and accepted standards dealing with capital market regulation. Mirza, Holt and Orre (2006) find that IFRS represents a useful instrument designed to create and promote a stable and more secure international regulatory environment.