Accounting conservatism and ifrs’s adoption: evidence from family and non- family brazilian companies

Abstract

This study aims to determine the influence of the convergence of Brazilian accounting standards to the International Accounting Standards on accounting conservatism of Brazilian familiar and non-familiar companies. Descriptive research with quantitative approach and supported by descriptive research was developed for this purpose. We used the model of Ball and Shivakumar (2005) to measure conditional conservatism. The sample consisted of 315 firms in the period 2003-2012, divided into family and non-family firms. The statistical techniques used in data analysis include the analysis of panel data, the LM test of Breusch-Pagan, VIF, White test and the Durbin-Watson test. The results of the study rejected the hypothesis that the convergence of Brazilian accounting standards to the International Accounting Standards influenced the level of accounting conservatism of Brazilian companies, both to the full sample and the subsample of non-familiar firms. Only for family firms such statistical confirmation was possible. Thus, it is concluded that there is evidence that the adoption of IFRS resulted in an increase in the level of accounting conservatism found in the reports of Brazilian family-controlled companies.