Motivated by the European Union (EU) decision to mandate application of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to the consolidated financial statements of all EU listed firms (Regulation (EC) 1606/2002), starting in December 2005, we compare the value relevance of accounting information in 14 European countries in the year prior to and the year of the mandatory adoption of the IFRS. We focus on three accounting information items for which measurements under IFRS are likely to differ considerably from measurements under domestic accounting practices across the EU countries prior to the introduction of the international standards: goodwill, research and development expenses (R&D), and asset revaluation. These three items, selected on an a priori basis, have been shown in previous research to differ in the effect of uncertainty on their future benefits. We use valuation models that include these three variables and in addition the book value of equity and earnings. Overall, our study suggests that the adoption of the IFRS has increased the value relevance of the three accounting numbers for investors in equity securities in the EU. Association tests support our two hypotheses: (1) in the year prior to the mandatory adoption of the IFRS, the incremental value relevance to investors of the three domestic GAAP-based accounting items was greater in countries where the respective domestic standards were more compatible with the IFRS; and (2) the higher the deviation of the three domestic GAAP-based accounting items from their corresponding IFRS values, the greater the incremental value relevance to investors from the switch to IFRS. These associations prevail when considering cross-country differences in the institutional environments, which tend to provide complementary effects.

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The use of the CAPM in empirical research is subject to some criticism. In light of this criticism the Stochastic Dominance criteria are offered as an alternative research method for the examination of market efficiency. The underlying assumptions of the two frameworks are discussed and the Stochastic Dominance technique is demonstrated via the examination of market reaction to quarterly earnings announcements during the 24 quarters commencing with October 1962. The findings are compared to those of Watts (Watts, R. The Time Series Behavior of Quarterly Earnings. Unpublished Paper, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, N.S.W. 1975, quoted in Watts [1978].) who utilized the same data base. In contrast to Watts' conclusion, our analysis suggests that the market was efficient during the entire period examined and that no significant differences in market behavior between the first and the second 12-month periods was evident. The discord may be attributed to the relative effectiveness of the two analytical tools and some differences in the research designs.market efficiency, capital asset pricing model, stochastic dominance

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