The Impact of IFRS Adoption on Earnings Management: Evidence from the UK

Abstract

The aim of this research was to assess empirically the impact of IFRS reporting on earnings management for firms in the UK. This study found that IFRS reporting has a modifying impact on earnings management, and this modification impact is higher for income-decreasing earnings management than income-increasing earnings management. This finding suggests that there are comparatively higher incentives for managing earnings upwards as opposed to managing earnings downwards. This study also found that the impact of IFRS reporting on earnings management is conditional on the quality of auditing. Therefore, this study concluded that reporting through a comparatively superior quality of accounting standard may result in a lower degree of earnings management, particularly for countries that have strong enforcement tools, such as the UK.