A new paper published in the Journal of Accounting Research looks into the economic consequences of disclosure and financial reporting regulation (including IFRS adoption), drawing on U.S. and international evidence. The authors highlight the challenges with quantifying regulatory costs and benefits, measuring disclosure and reporting outcomes, and drawing causal inferences from regulatory studies, but come to the following conclusions:

• There is a general lack of evidence on market-wide effects and externalities from regulation even though such evidence is central to the economic justification of regulation.
  
• Evidence on causal effects of disclosure and reporting regulation is still relatively rare.
• There is also a lack of evidence on the real effects of such regulation.

The article concludes with several specific suggestions for future research. It can be downloaded (for a charge) through the Wiley Online Library or accessed free of charge through SSRN.