Cost–Benefit Analysis of International Financial Reporting Standard and Russian Accounting Standard Integration: What Does Comparability Cost?

In Russia, firms with consolidated financial statements must produce financial statements in both RAS (Russian accounting standards) and IFRS (international financial reporting standards). Unconsolidated SMEs are only required to use RAS. Using hand-collected data from 2010–2013 (pre- and post-IFRS adoption periods), we find income measures under RAS are converging to income measures under IFRS. The quality of earnings exhibits no change under IFRS, while RAS earnings are being managed upward for firms that have adopted IFRS and downward for firms that have not adopted IFRS. The relative variation in market and book values differs more widely under IFRS when compared to RAS, implying more volatility and risk under IFRS. We attribute our findings to a monitoring effect derived from IFRS.