ADOPTION OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL REPORTING STANDARDS (IFRS/IAS) IN IRAQ: A LITERATURE REVIEW (2010–2024)

Abstract

This paper reviews the Iraqi literature on the adoption/implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS/IAS) during 2010–2024, assessing the quality of the evidence and analyzing its trends in light of the local institutional context. The results show that the Central Bank of Iraq's requirement for banks to implement IFRS since 2016—and the subsequent tightening of IFRS 9—has driven the bulk of studies toward the banking sector, while implementation documentation in non-financial sectors has remained less extensive (IFAC, 2016/2019; CBI, 2018). Local evidence of the association of adoption with aspects of information asymmetry, firm value/cost of equity, and earnings quality is emerging, but it is methodologically uneven and largely relies on before-after designs, calling for stronger causal designs (Barth et al., 2008; Ahmed et al., 2013; Hameedi et al., 2022; Abdullah & Ibrahim, 2024). The study recommends a future research agenda that includes expanding sectors, building Arabic textual disclosure indicators, adopting difference-in-differences designs, and linking compliance to governance and enforcement mechanisms.