Comparing the Value Relevance of Earnings and Book Value in IFRS and GAAP Standards

The aim of this paper is to present a comparative analysis of the value relevance of the book value and earnings on a sample of companies belonging to the financial sector, made up largely of banks. The sample originates from several European markets in IFRS, namely the Benelux countries, France, Spain, the United Kingdom and the US market in US GAAP. We will aim to find out under which standard applied to a given financial market,the relation between accounting numbers (earnings and book value) and the stock returns is the most significant. According to our results, there is no evidence that there are significant difference between common value relevance of earnings and book value per share on continental markets and Anglo-American markets.