The impact of national culture on the synchronicity of cross-listed firms

Abstract

We examine the impact of national culture on the relationship between International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption and stock price synchronicity for a sample of cross-listed firms in the U.S. We find that synchronicity decreases when the cross-listed firms reconcile their accounts from IFRS to U.S. GAAP. The synchronicity reduction is more pronounced for firms from secretive societies (i.e., low individualistic and masculine cultures, and high uncertainty avoidance and power distance cultures). Our results reveal that IFRS adoption improves firm-specific information, and national culture affects such improvement.