IFRS versus U.S. GAAP: escolha contábil ou decisão estratégia para empresas estrangeiras listadas na NYSE e NASDAQ?

Abstract

The general aim of this research is to analyze the effects of the accounting standard used as a basis for preparing and disclosing financial statements in non-American companies listed on the NYSE© and NASDAQ©, after determining the SEC which allowed the filing of financial reports under IFRS. To this end, research with a quantitative approach was carried out, with a descriptive nature and based on the technical procedures of bibliographical, documental, and ex-post-facto research. 967 non-US companies were analyzed, with data available from 2000 to 2021, before and after the SEC amendment determination, which allowed foreign companies that trade their shares on U.S. stock exchanges, choose to include their reports under IFRS instead U.S. GAAP, as well as released the need for reconciliation on Form 20-F. For the development of this study, the accounting-financial data were collected from the Refinitiv Eikon™ database, from public information made available by the NYSE© and NASDAQ©. Considering that this study empirically tested the existence or not of a relationship between the accounting standard used by non-US companies to prepare and disclose their financial statements and the informational quality, expenses with audit fees and the trading volume of the shares of these companies, Econometric approaches were used, including descriptive statistics, test of means, correlation matrix and application of the diff-in-diff model through multiple linear regression. The finds of this study indicated that the adoption of IFRS after the SEC determination had positive impacts on the informational quality of the financial statements and on investor behavior in relation to the volume of stock trading. However, the results differ from expectations regarding audit fees, indicating that other factors, such as the type of audit firm, can influence this relationship. In addition, several control variables, such as company size and asset tangibility, also influence the results. It was concluded, therefore, that the adoption of IFRS should be perceived as a strategic decision, and not as a simple accounting choice.