Accounting Commons^™

R&D Reporting Rule And Firm Efficiency, Nilabhra Bhattacharya, Yoshie Saito, Ram Venkataraman, Jeff Jiwei Yu

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

US GAAP (SFAS 2) requires immediate expensing of research and development (R&D) expenditure. Critics of this rule contend that the current treatment incentivizes managers to cut essential investments in R&D to manage short-term profits, and such actions could lead to longer-term adverse consequences for firms and investors. While other observers argue that there is little rigorous research that suggests that the current accounting treatment has harmful consequences. In this study, we exploit a setting in Germany when the accounting rule for R&D reporting changed from immediate expensing (as in the U.S.) to partial capitalization when Germany adopted International Financial Reporting …