The value relevance of IFRS 16 on the Swedish market

Abstract: The new standard IFRS 16 regarding leases was implemented 1st of January 2019 with the aim to improve accounting for leases and to provide more faithful information on the financial statements. We are conducting a value relevance study to observe to contribution of IFRS 16 to more value relevant information for investors and analysts. We are adopting an adjusted version of the valuation framework developed by Ohlson (1995) to be more coherent with the expected changes due to the new standard. We measure changes in value relevance pre and post the implementation of IFRS 16 using 8 quarterly interim reports representing the fiscal years 2018 and 2019. Furthermore, we are adopting an industry adjusted model to measure if value relevance has changed more in lease prevalent industries since industries such as retail, airline and service industries are expected to experience larger changes due to the new standard. We are considering 262 companies listed on the Swedish stock market, NASDAQ Stockholm. Our results suggest that the value relevance has increased in the post period of the implementation, especially in lease heavy industries.