Chiara Saccon

International Financial Reporting Convergence: Evidence from Three Continental European Countries

Abstract Listed companies in the European Union are required to apply International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in their consolidated accounts as of 1 January 2005. The purpose of this paper is to compare developments in France, Germany and Italy and the approaches to integrate the current European accounting reform processes with IFRS. The paper evaluates the adaptation of national accounting systems with respect to institutional and regulatory changes on the one hand and financial reporting changes on the other.

Financial reporting for joint ventures and capital markets reactions

The core argument of this paper is that International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) are designed to provide relevant financial information to a wide range of users. The higher the quality of the information supplied by financial reporting, the better the outcomes of the decision-making process of the participants on capital markets and the lower the information asymmetry within the markets. The working hypothesis is that the changes in financial reporting for joint ventures can reduce information asymmetry issues. Our approach takes into consideration the recently issued IFRS 11, which is of critical importance to the nature and quality of the financial information transmitted by the issuers to the market. The expected outcome of such an analysis resides in the idea that these changes in financial reporting reflect the role played by the international joint ventures in global markets and in the entire economic system.