Determinants of national IFRS adoption: evidence from the Middle East and North Africa region

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the determinants of the adoption of international of financial reporting standards (IFRS) in 14 Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries. Using a panel data from the period 2005 to 2020 and the three forms of isomorphic pressures (coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphism), and employing the Student-t test of difference in means between two samples, binary and ordinal logistic regression, we find that total external debt, openness of the economy to the outside world and educational level are significant in their positive association with national IFRS adoption for the full sample. However, these relationships are more significant in Middle Eastern countries than those in North African countries and they are more significant in MENA oil-exporting countries than those in other MENA non-oil-exporting countries. The findings have several practical implications for regulators and policymakers.