Check if XML element equals another XML element, ignoring empty values

Straightforward way to solve this particular problem is to introduce closing brackets explicitly:

 private static bool XmlEquals(string s1, string s2)
 {
      var firstElement = XElement.Parse(s1);
      var secondElement = XElement.Parse(s2);
      IntroduceClosingBracket(firstElement);
      IntroduceClosingBracket(secondElement);

      return XNode.DeepEquals(firstElement, secondElement);
 }

 private static void IntroduceClosingBracket(XElement element)
 {
      foreach (var descendant in element.DescendantsAndSelf())
      {
           if (descendant.IsEmpty)
           {
                descendant.SetValue(String.Empty);
           }
      }
 }

Loop through all descendants may cause a performance hit, though.