The Value Relevance of Adopting IASB Standards in Weak Equity Countries

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the debate on the improvement of value relevance with the transition to IASB standards; by choosing Italy as a case study, this paper investigates this issue in weak equity countries, where the factors that have influenced the development of an accounting system are very far from the Anglo-Saxon context, and where accounting practices pursue different purposes. Using the First-Time Adoption (FTA) of IASB standards in Europe as a starting point for our research, we analyze the change from Italian to IASB accounting standards.

Our results demonstrate that the transition to IASB standards did not bring a significant improvement in the explanatory power of accounting amounts (relative value relevance). Also, the earnings and book value reconciliations have not been found to be value relevant (incremental value relevance).

Our findings support the thesis that the adoption of IASB standards is not sufficient to improve the value         relevance of accounting amounts, because it depends on the particular context in which they are applied.