Hypothesis Development: Effects Of IFRS On Accounting Language

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2.2 Hypothesis Development: Effects of IFRS on Accounting Language
On the basis of these insights, I propose IFRS has affected the qualitative accounting language in three ways: First, I would expect that IFRS has introduced new vocabulary to the financial reporting language over time (cf. previous examples). A second, related argument is that the relevance of some accounting vocabulary vanished post IFRS adoption over time. A particularly illustrative example of this argument can be observed in the decision of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to change the titles of the individual financial statement components. For instance, the term “Balance Sheet” has been replaced by the term “Statement of Financial Position”, similarly …show more content…

Moreover, the authors’ analysis suggests that “firms using fewer negative, uncertain, modal strong, and modal weak words realize a more positive reaction from the market in the filing date event window” (Loughran & McDonald, 2011, p. 55). Jegadeesh & Wu (2013) analyze positive and negative words in 10-Ks and find evidence that both are significantly related to market reaction around filing dates. Analyzing firms’ 10-Q and 10-K filings, Davis & Tama-Sweet (2012) identify that more pessimistic language in the MD&A is associated with lower future return on assets. Moreover, their findings suggest “that pessimistic language in the MD&A provides information incremental to that disclosed in earnings press releases” (Davis & Tama-Sweet, 2012, p. 805). Li (2010a) finds evidence that average tone of forward looking statements in the MD&A section is positively related to future earnings and liquidity. Li et al. (2013) conclude that a firm’s return on net operating assets mean revers more severely, and that return on new investment in net operating assets diminish faster, if management makes more references to competition in the 10-K. Law & Mills (2015) discover that financially constrained firms – as measured by the frequency of negative words in their 10-K filings – pursue more aggressive tax planning strategies, indicating that firms’ qualitative disclosures provide useful information to reveal and predict tax

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