Xiaoxiao Song

Graduation Semester and Year

2017

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Accounting

Department

Accounting

First Advisor

Li-chin Ho

Abstract

The globalization of business and finance has led to the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in more than 100 countries, and numerous studies have examined the consequences of IFRS adoption in these countries. Currently, however, U.S. domestic issuers are not required to use IFRS in preparing their financial statements, which makes the study of potential IFRS adoption effects on U.S. domestic issuers difficult. My dissertation uses a unique sample of foreign private issuers that are cross listed in the U.S. and are allowed to use IFRS for their financial statements, so that I can investigate the effect of IFRS adoption on analyst forecast behavior and analyst information precision in the U.S. By comparing this IFRS adoption sample group with another group of U.S. foreign private issuers that use U.S. GAAP for their financial statements, my dissertation examines and answers three research questions. Firstly, whether there are any differences in analyst forecast behavior, such as analyst following, analyst forecast accuracy, and analyst forecast dispersion, between the IFRS group and the U.S. GAAP group. Secondly, whether analyst public and private information precision are affected by foreign private issuers’ IFRS adoption. And lastly, whether the IFRS adoption effect is moderated by industry characteristics (whether or not IFRS is the dominant accounting standard in the issuer’s industry) and moderated by the level of rule of law in the issuer’s home country. Results show that compared with the U.S. GAAP group, the IFRS group generally has lower analyst following, lower analyst forecast accuracy, higher forecast dispersion, and less precise public information precision. In addition, the negative effect of foreign private issuers’ IFRS adoption on analyst forecast accuracy is weaker when the issuer’s industry is in IFRS dominant industry, while the negative effect of IFRS adoption on analyst following is stronger when the issuer comes from a country with strong rule of law. In essence, my dissertation sheds light on the debate surrounding potential IFRS adoption in the U.S by providing evidence that to some extent, foreign private issuers’ IFRS adoption is related to unfavorable analyst forecast behavior and information precision in the U.S. capital market.

Keywords

IFRS adoption, U.S. capital market, Analyst forecast behavior

Disciplines

Accounting | Business

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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