IFRS adoption and enforcement as antecedents of economic growth

Globalization of capital markets has increased the need for harmonized accounting standards around the world. International regulators promote the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to increase harmonization. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of IFRS adoption on the economic growth of adopting countries taking into consideration the level of enforcement within a country. I hypothesize that the adoption of IFRS increases the economic growth of the adopting countries. This effect is to be moderated by the level of enforcement. That is, I hypothesize a positive interaction between enforcement level and IFRS adoption on the economic growth rate of a country. However, when enforcement is taken by itself, it causes a negative impact on the economic growth rate of a country. Using several statistical procedures and models to estimate regression, I find support for first two hypotheses. I find partial support for hypothesis 3