국제회계기준의 도입에 대한 주가반응

International Financial Reporting Standards (hereafter “IFRS”) are expected to provide high-quality accounting information and more disclosures relative to local accounting standards, which in turn reduce information asymmetry among investors. As information asymmetry among investors decreases, the cost of capital for IFRS adopters is likely to decrease (Healy et al. 1999; Leuz and Verrecchia 2000; Gassen and Sellhorn 2006; Christensen et al. 2007; Covrig et al. 2007; Lambert et al. 2007). Consistent with this conjecture, prior research finds that firm value is positively related to the adoption of IFRS (Leuz and Verrecchia 2000; Leuz 2003; Hope et al. 2005; Karamanou and Nishiotis 2005). The Korean government announced a road map for the full adoption of the IFRS on 15 March 2007. According to the road map, Korean firms will prepare financial statements in conformity with IFRS for fiscal years beginning on or after 1 January 2011. If IFRS has positive effects on firm value, investors are likely to respond positively to announcements of the adoption of IFRS. The positive effects will be pronounced for firms with lower quality information environments and higher information asymmetry. Thus, this study investigates the effects of the IFRS adoption on stock prices. Specifically, this study examines stock market reactions to eight events associated with the adoption of IFRS in Korea. Eight events are consisted of six good news for IFRS adoption (i.e., events that increase the likelihood of IFRS adoption) and two bad news for IFRS adoption (i.e., events that indicate the possibility of the delay of IFRS adoption). The samples are composed of 692 firm-years listed on KOSPI from April 20, 2005 to March 15, 2007. The empirical results are as follows. First, investors react positively to good news for IFRS adoption and negatively to bad news for IFRS adoption. These results are consistent with investors expecting that economic benefits from the adoption of IFRS in Korea exceed the costs. Second, investor reactions to good news for IFRS adoption are generally negative(positive) for firms with higher(lower) quality pre-adoption information environments and lower(higher) pre-adoption information asymmetry. On the other hand, investor reactions to bad news for IFRS adoption are likely to positive(negative) for firms with higher(lower) quality pre-adoption information environments and lower(higher) pre-adoption information asymmetry. The results suggest that benefits from IFRS adoption are pronounced when firms have poor information environments and high information asymmetry before the adoption of IFRS. Third, investor reactions to good news for IFRS adoption are negative for firms with higher derivative assets, fixed assets, and goodwill. Fair value measurement provides more relevant information, but it can also harm reliability of the information if it is not properly measured. In the absence of the infrastructure to determine fair value such as well-specified valuation models and specialists, fair value measurement can reduce usefulness of accounting information. The results are consistent with such a concern. Prior studies on IFRS have focused on the differences in accounting standards between IFRS and Korean GAAP and how to adopt IFRS. The primary contribution of this study on the IFRS literature is to provide first empirical evidence of Korean capital market's responses to IFRS adoption news. We expect future studies examining the changes in firm value after IFRS adoption.