Research and Development Expenses under IFRS Mandatory Implementation: A Value Relevance Approach

Abstract

The paper focuses on the degree to which the accounting treatment of R&D expenditure is stock price informative following the adoption of IAS. Therefore, using recent data of French listed companies, starting from the year in which IFRS were applied, 2005-2015, the present study examines the value relevance of the different R&D accounting treatments. Unlike evidence regarding the pre-IFRS period in France, we find that the capitalized portion of R&D is not correlated with market values, suggesting that under IFRS mandatory implementation, R&D assets are not value relevant. The expensed portion of R&D is positively related to market values only for manufacturing companies. Accordingly, we conclude that IFRS implementation has implications on the valuation of R&D expenditure by investors in French firms.