ABSTRACT
The paper focuses on Canada's enactment of IFRS for publicly accountable firms. We investigate whether IFRS meet one of their stated goals, which is to improve financial statements' relevance for stock markets. Results show that migrating from Canadian GAAP to IFRS enhances the value relevance of earnings but the effect is concentrated among firms that are cross-listed in the U.S. (and that do not report according to U.S. GAAP). The advent of IFRS enhances the value relevance of information contained in footnotes but attenuates the need for non-GAAP measures' disclosure. Stock market prices also embed more precise anticipations about future IFRS earnings. Additional analyses suggest that less earnings management accompanies IFRS adoption. Our results suggest that, for cross-listed firms, the adoption of IFRS enhanced the comparability of their financial statements and, ultimately, their value relevance.
