A re‐examination of reconciling items between Canadian and United States GAAP

Abstract
Explains that Canada is currently deciding whether to harmonize with US or international accounting standards and whether to allow Canadian SEC registrants to file their financial statements using US standards, outlines previous research on the information content of US/Canadian differences and tests the relative and incremental information content of 156 interlisted firms 1996‐1998. Explains the methodology and presents the results, which suggest that there is little difference in the relative information content of the two sets of standards although each provides information incremental to the other. Concludes that investors will not be harmed either by harmonization or by allowing financial reporting under US standards.