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Legal Regime and Financial Reporting Quality

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  • Andrei Filip
  • Réal Labelle
  • Stéphane Rousseau

Abstract

This article uses the Canadian environment, where French civil law (FCL) in the province of Quebec coexists with common law (CL) in the Rest of Canada (denoted as bijural), to test the thesis of the neutrality of the legal system with regard to financial reporting quality (FRQ). This single†country design allows for a better control over other factors that influence FRQ. The FCL environment appears to encourage firms to publish accounting data of better quality due to the greater liability risk faced by auditors and corporate directors under that regime. These findings, based on 10 years of data and seven attributes of FRQ, are robust to different matching procedures and model specifications. This research contributes to the current debates in Canada as to whether financial market regulation under FCL and CL jurisdictions should be unified under a single CL national securities regulator. At the broader level, the results support claims that a more in†depth understanding of the implementation of civil law and CL is needed rather than gross generalization about the two systems. These results especially call into question that CL regimes are unambiguously superior to civil law regimes in encouraging high†quality financial reports.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrei Filip & Réal Labelle & Stéphane Rousseau, 2015. "Legal Regime and Financial Reporting Quality," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(1), pages 280-307, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:coacre:v:32:y:2015:i:1:p:280-307
    DOI: 10.1111/1911-3846.12071
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    Cited by:

    1. Maryam Firoozi & Michel Magnan & Steve Fortin, 2016. "Board Diversity and Financial Reporting Quality," CIRANO Working Papers 2016s-27, CIRANO.
    2. Denis Cormier & Luania Gomez Gutierrez & Michel Magnan, 2020. "Market enforcement under different legal regimes: a comparison of France and Canada," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(1), pages 37-61, March.
    3. Zeng, Yanni & Liu, Mengna & Ding, Ashley & Xu, Rui & Zhang, Hao, 2023. "Cultural similarity of non-local independent directors and financial reporting quality," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    4. Denis Cormier & Luania Gutierrez & Michel Magnan, 2024. "The link between CSR performance and CSR disclosure quality: does board diversity matter?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 28(1), pages 237-263, March.
    5. Brian M. Burnett & Elizabeth A. Gordon & Bjorn N. Jorgensen & Cheryl L. Linthicum, 2015. "Earnings Quality: Evidence from Canadian Firms' Choice between IFRS and U.S. GAAP," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(3), pages 212-249, September.
    6. Saidatou Dicko & Hanen Khemakhem & Félix Zogning, 2020. "Political connections and voluntary disclosure: the case of Canadian listed companies," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(2), pages 481-506, June.
    7. Vagner Alves Arantes & Saidatou Dicko & Rodrigo Oliveira Soares, 2024. "Firms’ political connections and performance in Brazil and Canada: an analysis of the effect of country institutional factors," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 28(1), pages 63-112, March.
    8. Nobes, Christopher, 2018. "Lessons from misclassification in international accounting," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 239-254.
    9. Yan Luo & Steven E. Salterio, 2021. "Toward an Archival Measure of the Likelihood of Auditor‐Client Management Negotiation: An Exploration of the Audit Lag Measures Conjecture†," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(1), pages 109-143, March.
    10. Maryam Firoozi & Michel Magnan & Steve Fortin & Shane Nicholls, 2016. "Do Foreign Directors on Audit Committees Enhance Financial Reporting Quality?," CIRANO Working Papers 2016s-23, CIRANO.
    11. Athanasakou, Vasiliki & Boshanna, Abdlmutaleb & Kochetova, Natalia & Voulgaris, Georgios, 2024. "Strategy and business model disclosures in annual reports: The role of legal regime," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(3).

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