IFRS Adoption, Extent of Disclosure, and Perceived Corruption: A Cross-Country Study

We investigate whether IFRS adoption and the extent of disclosure in a country play any role in reducing perceived corruption, after controlling for the effects of political institutions and economic development. The sample covers 104 countries over the period 2009-2011. We find strong evidence that the length of IFRS experience and the extent of disclosure are negatively related to perceived corruption in a country. We also find that relative to developed countries, developing countries benefit more from IFRS experience in lowering perceived corruption. Our results are robust to several sensitivity tests, including alternative models, alternative measures of perceived corruption, and controlling for endogeneity. Our findings are important because critics have questioned the merit of IFRS adoption by developing countries with weak institutional settings.