IFRS X REGULATORY GAAP: VALUE RELEVANCE OF BRAZILIAN ELECTRIC UTILITIES' ACCOUNTING INFORMATION

In electric utility companies, financial statements must be presented according to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or Regulatory Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). As such, we investigate which of the models best explains the share price variation of Brazilian electric companies from 2011 to 2018. Data were gathered from the Economatica® database and the National Agency of Electric Energy (ANEEL) website. The analysis was performed using multiple regressions with panel data and model estimation based on the methodology of Collins, Maydew and Weiss (1997), developed from Ohlson (1995). Results showed that the IFRS model shows greater explanatory power (R2 of 65.39%) in comparison to the regulatory GAAP model (R2 of 58.96), therefore our research hypothesis that corporate accounting information is more relevant to investors than regulatory accounting information was not rejected. Additionally, further analysis indicated that by segregating the investigation periods into 2011-2014 (prior to the Accounting Standards Committee Technical Orientation OCPC 08) and 2015-2018 (after the issuance 1 PhD student in Accounting at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). Address: Eng. Agronômico Andrei Cristian Ferreira Street, s/n Centro Socioeconômico (CSE), room 225, Trindade, Florianópolis-SC, Zip Code: 88040-970. Contact: (48) 3721-6608. E-mail: mariliaferreira82@hotmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4290-8589 2 PhD in Controllership and Accounting from the University of São Paulo (USP). Professor at Graduate Program in Accounting at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). Address: Eng. Agronômico Andrei Cristian Ferreira Street, s/n Centro Socioeconômico, room 115, Trindade, Florianópolis-SC, Zip Code: 88040-970. Contact: (48) 3721-6608. E-mail: alex.mussoi@ufsc.br https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3389-9713 3 Master in Accounting from the Federal University of Goiás (UFG). Address: Samambaia Street, s/n – Faculdade de Administração, Ciências Contábeis e Ciências Econômicas (FACE), Campus Samambaia, Goiânia-GO, Zip Code: 74001-970. Contact: (62) 3521-1390 branch 252. E-mail: jackelline.ufg@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9759-1729 4 PhD in Controllership and Accounting from the University of São Paulo (USP). Professor at the Graduate Accounting Program at the Federal University of Goiás (UFG). Address: Samambaia Street, s/n – Faculdade de Administração, Ciências Contábeis e Ciências Econômicas (FACE), Campus Samambaia, Goiânia-GO, Zip Code: 74001-970. Contact: (62) 3521-1390. Email: chscarmo@uol.com. br https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9397-8678 IFRS X Regulatory GAAP: Value Relevance Of Brazilian Electric Utilities' Accounting Information Revista Contabilidade Vista & Revista, ISSN 0103-734X, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, 151 Belo Horizonte, v. 32, n. 2, p. 150-173, maio/ago. 2021. of OCPC 08), in the earlier only regulatory accounting information demonstrated statistical significance and in the later, corporate accounting information (R2 of 73.37%) revealed higher relevance than regulatory (R2 of 65.41%). This higher relevance may be associated with the fact that IFRS financial statements are based on principles and regulatory financial statements of the power companies are based on tax and tariff sector-specific regulations.