This paper will examine the history of international accounting that eventually led to the adoption of IFRS in the European Union. It will have an in depth analysis of IFRS and what it may mean for the United States should there be an adoption or a convergence. It will also comment on what needs to be considered in the convergence or adoption process.

As instuições financeiras do Brasil que possuem Comitê de Auditoria e/ou estão listadas em Bolsa de Valores, são obrigadas a divulgar dois balanços diferentes: seguindo o padrão Bacen-GAAP e em IFRS. A partir desse contexto, este estudo objetivou comparar a relevância desses dois tipos de informações. Era esperado que as informações em IFRS fossem, de forma geral, mais relevantes do que as em Bacen. Para tanto, a metodologia envolveu o uso do Modelo de Ohlson (1995) com adição de variáveis de controle e dados em painel para os anos de 2010 a 2017. Foram estimados dois modelos, um para cada tipo de informação, e a análise da relevância deu-se com base nos valores do R2, critérios de informação e teste de robustez. Os resultados foram estimados por efeitos fixos corrigidos por erro-padrão robusto agrupados por empresas. No modelo com todas as variáveis, o IFRS foi mais value relevant do que Bacen. Já na estimação separada do LPA, este, quando mensurado em Bacen, é mais relevante, mas isso se inverte na estimação do VPA, em que o IFRS tem maior relevância. Além disso, o LPA apresenta maior poder explicativo do que o VPA. As diferenças na relevância, no entanto, são sutis, o que sugere interferências do ambiente institucional brasileiro. Esses resultados podem sugerir uma reflexão do Banco Central no sentido de analisar a adoção das IFRS de forma plena, o que caracterizaria uma economia de custos de divulgação. / The Brazilian financial institutions that have an Audit Committee and/or are listed on the Stock Exchange are obliged to disclose two different balance sheets: one following the Bacen GAAP standard and the other in IFRS. From this context, this research aimed to compare the relevance of these two types of information. It was expected that IFRS information would, in general, be more relevant than those in Bacen. To do so, the methodology involved the use of the Ohlson Model (1995) with addition of control variables, and panel data for the years of 2010 to 2017. Two models were estimated, one for each type of information, and the analysis of relevance was given based on the R2 values, information criteria and robustness test. The results were estimated by fixed effects, corrected by robust standard error grouped by companies. In the model with all variables, the IFRS was more value relevant than Bacen. On the other hand, in the separate estimation of the LPA, when measured in Bacen is more relevant, but this is reversed in the VPA\'s estimation, in which the IFRS is more relevant. In addition, the LPA has more explainatory factor than the VPA. The differences in relevance, however, are subtle, suggesting interference from the Brazilian institutional environment. These results may suggest a reflection by the Central Bank in order to analyze the adoption of IFRS in full, which would mean a disclosure cost saving.

This study seeks to find if there is a significant relationship between the amount of media coverage focused on public companies in the United States and the difference between GAAP financial performance and analyst-adjusted estimates of financial performance. I will answer this question by testing this difference among S&P 500 companies, as well as companies within that index as identified by a certain industry.

The United States has a long history of doing things differently than other countries. Its accounting standards are no different; to date, it continues to use its own Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and have yet to converge to the International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") as set by the International Accounting Standards Board. In 2008, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") Chairman Christopher Cox published a press release in which the SEC published for public comment a roadmap towards convergence by 2014. However, in subsequent years, Memorandum of Understandings published by the IASB and the United States' Financial Accounting Standards Boards ("FASB") pushed back the date of implementation at each publication. As a result, the convergence efforts have been stalling greatly. It is very unlikely that the U.S. will ever completely converge to IFRS as the financial costs and obstacles to convergence are not insignificant. Not only will the costs of implication be great, but also the costs of training and education of auditors and accountants. It is not feasible for the U.S. to converge with IFRS in the near future, as the benefits most countries obtain through convergence such as increased quality of financial statements will not be realized. As such, this paper seeks to prove why IFRS convergence will not be realized in the United States.

The aim of this thesis is to introduce the issue of regulation of financial accounting and the transition to IFRS in Canada. It describes the history of Canada's financial accounting. Financial accounting in Canada is regulated by accounting standards, the issuance is in charge of the Accounting Standards Board and the Public Sector Accounting Board, subject to the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. Then there is described the transition to IFRS in Canada, the growing importance of IFRS in the world. The last part can be found some differences between Canadian GAAP and IFRS.

In the last 20 years, IASB IFRS has been promoted as the IFRS has been adopted by many major economies as for financial reporting and is poised to become even more widely accepted and used in the near future, with the main objective of unifying world financial reporting by making statements more comparable. The second key player in the field of financial reporting is US GAAP, used by American publicly traded companies, accounting roughly for approximately one-third of the world's capitalization. Although many countries, in concluding members of the EU, have accepted IFRS without significant changes to their existing financial reporting standards or their infrastructure, SEC in the USA has lead a long process of convergence with IFRS from the technical side and also the regulators and general environment has been preparing for the change, with the aim of ensuring smooth and successful transition, resulting in a higher quality of IFRS adoption. The main problem, which leads to the research presented in this dissertation is whether to approach international accounting harmonization from the top-down or bottom-up. The main objective of the dissertation is was to contribute to the analysis of the significance of the impact of non-accounting (environmental) factors on financial reporting quality, specifically the adoption of IFRS. The dissertation accomplishes the main goal by utilizing the survey method of analysis to accumulate research to date, analyze available evaluation methods and to describe the control environment, USA. The second stage of the analysis involves constructing a comprehensive evaluation model, which enables a comprehensive analysis of the relationship between environment and financial reporting. The model developed in the dissertation is intended for use by researchers for a comprehensive, inter-disciplinary, empirical study of the environmental effects on financial reporting.

In the last 15 years it has been widely debated whether or not the United States should adopt IFRS. Convergence efforts in the 21st century have limited the distinctions between U.S. GAAP and IFRS, but significant differences still exist. This paper takes an in-depth look at the most important remaining differences between U.S. GAAP and IFRS, and examines both sides of the argument on adoption. Finally, I conclude that the U.S. should continue to use and refine its own standards.

I investigate whether a firm’s social capital with investors impacts its non-GAAP reporting decisions. Critics of non-GAAP reporting suggest that non-GAAP earnings are incomplete, inaccurate, and can be misleading (Derby, 2001; Dreman, 2001; Elstein, 2001; Black et al., 2007). Firms might be hesitant to provide non-GAAP information if other means are available to transfer information. Social capital provides an alternate method of informing investors. However, social capital might also play another role in the information environment by building trust between managers and investors (Gabarro, 1978; Gulati, 1995). This trust may reduce investor skepticism of non-GAAP information, enhancing the value of non-GAAP disclosures. Additionally, I examine what impact social capital might have on investors’ investment decisions with respect to non-GAAP reporting. Despite critics’ concerns over non-GAAP reporting, prior literature suggests investors’ reactions are more aligned with the non-GAAP definition of earnings (Bradshaw and Sloan, 2002; Bhattacharya et al., 2003), suggesting other factors might influence investors’ decisions. I investigate whether social capital plays a role in reducing skepticism in non-GAAP information leading to reduced information asymmetry and increased investor reaction to non-GAAP disclosures. I find that non-GAAP reporting is increasing in social capital with investors. However, I find no evidence that investor reactions to non-GAAP earnings information differ based on firms’ social capital with investors. I also find information asymmetry around earnings announcements is higher for non-GAAP reporting firms with greater social capital with investors in comparison to non-GAAP reporters with lower social capital. Taken together, my results suggest social capital impacts the decisions of firms in reporting non-GAAP earnings information, but not the decisions of investors. My results are relevant to the current disclosure environment in that non-GAAP reporting is a current topic of interest for regulators with several updates to non-GAAP guidance having recently occurred. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2019. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

In this paper, I will highlight the current issues at hand pertaining to the accounting industry policies. I will focus on the auditing sector providing services for public companies. I will lay out the structure, rules, and regulations that are in place today as well as criticize the areas that can be improved upon. I will go through various possibilities of solutions and conclude that the best way to increase financial statement reliability in our country is by both strengthening audit committees and providing financial statement insurance.

This master's thesis describes revenue recognition principles and their guidelines for the most important globally used financial reporting standards and introduces the proposed revenue recognition convergence project, whose future plan is to converge major accounting codifications into one internationally accepted and applied standard. The theoretical part comprises of a description the history and principles of IAS/IFRS and US GAAP and their current guidelines to revenue recognition. The practical part of the thesis consists of an interpretation of the proposed exposure draft, comparison with current standards and model example of construction contract revenue accounting.