Revisiting IFRS Consequences: Evidence from Wider Corporate Reporting

Abstract

Prior IFRS adoption effects focus on accounting quantitative information but there is scant evidence of the impact on textual attributes. Motivated by the increasing complexity of annual report narratives, this study examines the impact of IFRS adoption on the level of complexity of accounting narratives. Narrative complexity is measured using, increased disclosures, syllabification at the word level and fog index from computational linguistics. Statistical regression fixed effects model including accounting narrative research control variables is used to analyse the relationship between the observed level of annual report narrative complexity and mandatory adoption excluding the adoption year effects. The results find evidence of a significant increase in complexity with the mandatory regulatory adoption of IFRS in 2005 and this increase appears to be associated with increased narrative disclosures (longer narratives), increased use of complex words and overall textual complexity.