I use an accounting reform to assess the agency cost of debt in diversified firms. Firms that switch from single-to-multisegment following the reform suffer a 12% increase in the bond spread than their standalone peers. Consistent with lenders anticipating underinvestment and asset substitution...

The IFRS 8, the operating segments was converged of the IAS 14 and SFAS 131(US GAAP). It was issued in November 2006 and subsequently has been applied since 2009. The core of convergence is to reduce the differences between IAS 14 and SFAS 131. The IASB expected that a change would increase...