Adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on companies' financing structure in emerging economies

This paper aims to study the relationship between the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the companies' financing structure in different emerging economies. A linear hierarchical regression model is applied, considering firm, country and region levels, in a database of 150,265 observations of companies from 145 countries between 2003 and 2014. The impact of the adoption of IFRS in financing decisions is heterogeneous among companies from different regions and countries. This effect is clearer when country controls are applied to monitor the legal enforcement and investor safety, such as the quality of the boards and accounting audits.