Measuring Intangible Investment

L. C. Hunter (), Elizabeth Webster () and Anne Wyatt ()
Additional contact information
L. C. Hunter: School of Business and Management, University of Glasgow
Anne Wyatt: Department of Accounting, University of Adelaide

Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne

Abstract: Recent years have seen a growth in the literature on a variety of aspects of intangible investment, the complement of the more familiar investment in tangible assets such as buildings, plant, and equipment. For economic and business analysts this change in emphasis necessitates the selection of a meaningful metric for intangible investment and the firm’s total capital stock of tangible and intangible assets, which is not provided by conventional accounting systems. This gives rise to a deficiency of information for two principal audiences: shareholders and external stakeholders in the firm and the internal management of the firm. Information to know and understand the level of returns to past investments; and to form expectations about future investments, their returns, and risk profiles is accordingly missing. This paper builds on recent studies focusing on this problem to (1) characterize the nature and implications of the information deficiency; and (2) develop an intangible metric that illustrates what can be achieved with suitable accounting data.

Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2005-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fin
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/downloads ... series/wp2005n15.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2005n15

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sheri Carnegie ().