Firm-level incentives and economic consequences of IFRS convergence in Brazil

Author(s)

Vinícius Simmer de Lima

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade (FEA/SBD)
• Defense date: 2011-11-03

Examining board members

Iran Siqueira Lima; Luiz Nelson Guedes de Carvalho; Wilson Toshiro Nakamura

• Advisor: Iran Siqueira Lima

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate whether underlying firm-level incentives influence firms\' compliance with IFRS convergence practices and whether this adoption impact firms\' cost of equity capital and market liquidity in Brazil, a setting with a very distinct institutional environment and high growth opportunities. The study extends the work of Daske et al. (2008) considering Ball\'s (2006) observation that superior accounting standards do not necessarily translate into higher quality reporting, since reporting quality may be largely shaped not by accounting standards alone, but also by firm-level economic incentives and economic/political forces. Using a sample of 148 firms with shares traded in the São Paulo Stock Exchange, the study employs two measures of accounting convergence based on (i) compliance to a 58-item index (IAPC), called the International Accounting Standards Convergence Index and (ii) quantity increase in annual reports disclosure. An implied measure of cost of capital is calculated from four models (Claus and Thomas, 2001; Gebhardt et al., 2001; Easton, 2004; Ohlson and Juettner-Nauroth, 2005). Market liquidity is measured by the bid-ask spread, price impact and share turnover. Firm-level economic incentives consider size, exposure to international markets, financing needs, growth opportunities, profitability, ownership structure and corporate control and auditing firm. The methodology is divided in the following analysis: the determinants of the levels of compliance with the IFRS convergence practices, the heterogeneity of IFRS convergence effects on the capital markets and the intertemporal analysis of the IFRS convergence effects on the capital markets. In all approaches, the analyses focus on the roles of economic incentives. Initially, the preliminary assessment of the proxies allowed the empirical validation of the estimates of cost of capital and measurements of market liquidity. The results indicate that firm-level incentives are important determinants in the attitude of companies towards the adoption of IFRS convergence practices. The results suggest that firms that (i) are larger, (ii) are less leveraged, (iii) have greater opportunities for growth, (iv) have greater profitability, (iv) diffuse ownership and control structure and (v) are audited by the Big Four are more likely to adopt IFRS practices by implementing material changes in their accounting policies. The analysis of economic consequence shows that cost of capital and market liquidity (except the impact on price) seem to be related to the companies commitment to the adoption of IFRS convergence practices, even controlling underlying incentives. Thus, despite the emerging characteristics of the Brazilian economy, the results shows signs that the adoption of a superior accounting model can imply improvements to the information environment of companies, regardless of their firm-level incentives, resulting in positive impacts on capital markets. However, evidence suggests that measurement of this relation should be conditional on the analysis of firm-level incentives, since they seem to directly determine the disclosure of corporate financial information and exert interactive effects on the cost of capital and market liquidity. Finally, the intertemporal analysis provides only weak evidence that the IAPC influences the changes in cost of capital from 2006 to 2009. In this analysis, the incentives seem dominate the individual effect of accounting standards. Instead, the analyses of market liquidity shows that individual accounting standards seem dominate the effect of the incentives. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 09/04564-0 - ANALYSIS OF REAL OPTIONS COMPONENT INCORPORATION INTO THE OHLSON'S VALUATION MODEL: ACCOUNTING-FINANCE INTERRELATION ON EQUITY VALUE ESTIMATION IN BRAZIL
• Grantee: Vinícius Simmer de Lima
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master