Adoption of the International Accounting Standard by Small and Medium-Sized Entities and its Effects on Credit Granting

Abstract

This research examines the relationship between the adoption of the international accounting standard by small and medium-sized entities in Brazil and the cost of credit granted by financial institutions. The literature about this subject discusses accounting regulation as a response to the existence of environments having information asymmetry and the Disclosure Theory studies the phenomenon of accounting disclosure, from the viewpoint of its causes and effects. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) suggests that an accounting standard with higher information quality tends to reduce the funding cost for small enterprises and, thus, this paper has as its main aim investigating whether the adoption of the international accounting standard has caused some effect on the cost of banking credit. The investigation was conducted through a theoretical and empirical approach, where the statistical analyses involved a sample of 179 enterprises subject to the Brazilian Technical Pronouncement - Accounting for Small and Medium-Sized Entities (CPC-SMEs), which underwent descriptive analysis, sample means testing, panel data analysis, and quantile regressions, with data from financial statements for three years (2009 to 2011). Evidence suggests a weak association between measures of the accounting information quality (disclosure and exposure of the adoption of the accounting standard based on the CPC) and the cost of banking credit for these enterprises. However, such evidence did not prove to be consistent over time and, furthermore, through regression analysis, the variables were not significant. So, it is possible to observe only a slight influence of accounting information in the sector under analysis, at least at this very first moment of changes in the accounting standards, on the cost of banking credit. Thus, this study contributes to examine the relationship between accounting information quality and the cost of banking credit among small and medium-sized entities.