Towards an understanding of the phases of goodwill accounting in four Western capitalist countries: From stakeholder model to shareholder model

Yuan Ding, Hervé Stolowy () and Jacques Richard

No 872, HEC Research Papers Series from HEC Paris

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to illustrate that the change in shareholders’ attitude towards firms (from stakeholder model to shareholder model) influences the accounting treatments of goodwill. This study is based on four countries (Great Britain, the United States, Germany, and France) and covers more than a century, starting in 1880. The authors explain that all these countries have gone through four identified phases of goodwill accounting, classified as (1) “static”(immediate or rapid expensing), (2) “weakened static” (write-off against equity), (3) “dynamic” (recognition with amortization over a long period) and (4) “actuarial” (recognition without amortization but with impairment if necessary).

Keywords: Goodwill – Accounting history – Social nature of accounting – Stakeholder/shareholder models – Corporate governance; France; Germany; Great Britain; United States (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 70 pages
Date: 2007-10-25
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc and nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Towards an understanding of the phases of goodwill accounting in four Western capitalist countries: From stakeholder model to shareholder model (2008)
Working Paper: Towards an Understanding of the Phases of Goodwill Accounting in Four Western Capitalist Countries: From Stakeholder Model to Shareholder Model (2008)
Working Paper: Towards an understanding of the phases of goodwill accounting in four Western capitalist countries: From stakeholder model to shareholder model (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ebg:heccah:0872

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