۱- Introduction

۲- Exchange-regulated markets

۳- Voluntary IFRS adoption

۴- Data and research design

۵- Results

۶- Conclusion

References

Abstract

This research note aims to enrich our understanding of reporting incentives of firms listed in European exchange-regulated markets. Many initial public offerings (IPOs) in Europe are within exchange-regulated markets where firms are allowed to choose between local GAAP and IFRS. Therefore, this research note describes the regulatory environment and investigates the choice to voluntarily adopt IFRS within European exchange-regulated markets. Overall, less than 20% of the firms voluntarily adopt IFRS and voluntary IFRS adoption upon IPO is positively associated with firm size, foreign firms, stocks offered to institutional investors prior to the IPO, and a future migration to an EU-regulated market.

Introduction

Regulation 2002/1606/EC (European Commission, 2002) requires publicly listed European firms to prepare their consolidated financial statements in accordance with IFRS only if they are listed in an EU-regulated market. Hence, this does not apply to exchange-regulated markets (2002/1606/EC, Article 4) and firms can choose between local GAAP and IFRS.1 Generally, the literature finds positive capital market effects of IFRS adoption (see Brüggemann et al. (2013) for a review). In turn, this leads to the question why the vast majority of firms did not voluntarily adopt IFRS (Christensen, 2012). This study contributes to the question to what extent and why firms voluntarily adopt IFRS in an unexplored setting. Prior evidence of voluntary IFRS adoption cannot be generalized to the exchange-regulated markets because firms that perform an IPO in the exchange-regulated markets are different from firms that perform an IPO in a EU-regulated market: They are more likely to be owned by private investors prior to the IPO, place relatively few shares within the IPO, and are smaller than their counterparts from EU-regulated markets. Therefore, the aim of this research note is to describe the regulatory environment and to investigate (i) the ratio of voluntary adopters and (ii) the determinants of voluntary adoption of IFRS in the European exchange-regulated markets of Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon, Frankfurt, and Paris. To the best of my knowledge, this research note is the first to examine voluntary IFRS adoption of public firms after IFRS became mandatory for most European public firms in 2005. First, I find that overall less than 20% of the firms listed in these exchange-regulated markets voluntarily adopt IFRS.