Increased comparability of financial statements across adopting countries was one of the main objectives of IFRS adoption. The level of achievement of this objective, although, is still debatable. We contribute to this debate by studying whether the determinants of goodwill write-off are the same or vary across countries with different accounting systems. We find that firms that expect low operating cash flows in the future are more likely to report goodwill write-offs if they are located in countries with an Anglo-Saxton accounting system than if they are located in countries with a Continental accounting system. These results suggest that IFRS are “interpreted” differently in different countries and that harmonization of financial statements has not been achieved yet.
DETERMINANTS OF GOODWILL WRITE-OFFS IN EUROPE:DO ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS MATTER?
AVALLONE, FRANCESCO GIOVANNI;GABBIONETA, CLAUDIA;RAMASSA, PAOLA;SORRENTINO, MARCO
2014-01-01
Abstract
Increased comparability of financial statements across adopting countries was one of the main objectives of IFRS adoption. The level of achievement of this objective, although, is still debatable. We contribute to this debate by studying whether the determinants of goodwill write-off are the same or vary across countries with different accounting systems. We find that firms that expect low operating cash flows in the future are more likely to report goodwill write-offs if they are located in countries with an Anglo-Saxton accounting system than if they are located in countries with a Continental accounting system. These results suggest that IFRS are “interpreted” differently in different countries and that harmonization of financial statements has not been achieved yet.
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
