The Usefulness of Academic Research in Understanding the Effects of Accounting Standards

This paper provides an overview of why, and how, academic research can assist regulators and standard setters in evaluating <italic>ex ante</italic> and <italic>ex post</italic> the effects of standardization and regulation of corporate financial reporting and disclosure. We argue that academic research is a valuable and often underutilized resource that can help standard setters and policymakers understand the possible effects of accounting standards and regulations. We give an overview of approaches that can, and are, used for this objective and provide selected examples to illustrate how academic research can inform standard setters and regulators.