La value relevance delle spese di ricerca e sviluppo nelle società quotate italiane

This study aims at investigating the value relevance of research and development (R&D) expenses reported under International Accounting Standard (IAS) 38. Using a sample of Italian listed firms for the period 2006-2012, we divide firm-year observations into two groups: firms capitalising R&D and firms expensing these costs in the income statement. In addition, we isolate R&D expensed by capitalisers firms. Results show that R&D costs expensed by capitalisers firms are value relevant, while this relation does not hold for expensers firms. In addition, capitalised costs are not related to market value either. According to the literature, these results can be due to the discretion given to the management in a) assessing future economic benefits so as to capitalise R&D expenses b) defining the difference between “research” and “development”. Our results contribute to the extant literature in the following ways. First, our results are particularly interesting for preparers, since they are informed about the economic consequence of R&D accounting policy choices. Second, we report a lack of information in most of the annual reports we examined, which constitutes an input for Standard Setters and market authorities. In the end, we conclude that implementation and enforcement regarding the reporting of R&D expenses under IAS 38 in Italy is far from being complete.