Financial reporting quality in large energy and mining companies: A Canadian case

Abstract

This paper primarily examines the effect of the mandatory IFRS adoption in Canada by the Canadian energy companies. It is a comparative study between the Canadian GAAP and IFRS from 2008 to 2012. Since this research is an empirical study, the quantitative research method is applied. The research question for this research study is: Does IFRS adoption in the Canadian energy and mining companies improve accounting quality?. This research finds that earnings quality has increased due to the lower volatility between earnings and market price; enhance predict ability in the cash flows and financial forecasting (cash related); and stronger influence of earnings to shareholder value. However, it also finds that earnings quality has reduced due to lower persistency and predictability; and less accruals and timeliness loss of recognition (increase in income smoothing).