Accounting for intangible assets and the relevance of financial statements in developed and emerging capital markets: Australia and China

Research indicates that there are differences in the ways that investors in developed countries such as Australia, the US and the UK value the intangible assets reported in firms’ financial statements (Barth and Clinch 1996, Barth 2000, Lev and Zarowin 1999). Using the Australian institutional setting, research has particularly investigated the relevance of capitalized goodwill, and capitalized research and development to equity valuation (Abrahams and Sidhu 1998, Godfrey and Koh 2001). However, research has not yet investigated the association between the market value of firms in developing countries and their book values of intangible assets. Since the promulgation of China’s first western-style accounting standard Chinese Accounting Standard for Enterprises in 1992, accounting standards and regulations issued by the Chinese government have become increasingly internationally compatible. This gives rise to a unique research opportunity to examine the economic relevance of accounting in the emerging economy of China. Using large samples of. Australian and Chinese companies, this chapter investigates the relevance of capitalized intangible assets to equity valuation. In particular, it investigates whether variations in the book values of individual capitalized intangible assets or the aggregate book values of capitalized intangible assets explain variations in the market value of equity for Australian and Chinese firms.