How to measure the comparability of financial statements?

Since 2005, listed EU companies apply IFRS to prepare their
consolidated financial statements. Users might get the impression that these
financial statements are comparable now. However, differences in application
of IFRS still exist. These differences can have a negative impact on the
comparability of the financial statements. Therefore, the implementation of
IFRS has not eliminated the need for research concerning the comparability of
financial statements. The purpose of this article is to assist researchers in
choosing the most appropriate method to measure this comparability. First the
article discusses the concept of comparability. Second, important properties of
measurement methods are discussed. Next, the H, C, I, V and T index and three
statistical models are analysed. Finally, the article gives an illustration of
choosing a method to measure the comparability of the consolidated financial
statements of the EU listed companies.

Jaar van publicatie:2009

Trefwoorden:IFRS, international financial reporting standards;, measuring comparability, harmonisation, financial statements