IFRS adoption and analysts' earnings forecasts: Australian evidence

Julie Cotter*, Ann Tarca, Marvin Wee

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

68 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We study 145 large listed Australian firms to explore the impact of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) adoption on the properties of analysts' forecasts and the role of firm disclosure about IFRS impact. We find that analyst forecast accuracy improves, and there is no significant change in dispersion in the adoption year, suggesting that analysts coped effectively with transition to IFRS. However, we do not observe the expected relationship between firms' IFRS impact disclosures in their financial statements issued at the end of the transition year with forecast error and dispersion in the adoption year. The results question the timeliness and usefulness of financial statement disclosure, even in a setting where disclosure was mandated by accounting standards (AASB 1047 and AASB 1) and firms had strong incentives to provide information to analysts.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)395-419
Number of pages25
JournalAccounting and Finance
Volume52
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2012
Externally publishedYes

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