The Impact of the Disclosed R & D Expenditure on the Value Relevance of the Accounting Information: Evidence from Greek Listed Firms

Although many empirical studies have focused on R & D performance models for markets globally, the available financial information for R & D expenditure is limited. In other words, can we assume that the reported accounting information for R & D investment is adequate and valuable? This study empirically investigates the effect of R & D reported information on the value relevance of the accounting information of firms’ financial statements. Specifically, using Ohlson’s equation, it is examined whether changes in stock prices are explained better when R & D factors are included in models, in conjunction with changes in book value and abnormal earnings. We focus on listed firms on the Athens Stock Exchange in order to explore whether R & D expenses are value relevant, in a market which has been affected for a long period by the global economic crisis of 2007. In our findings, we observe that the reported R & D expenses do not have any significant influence on the investors’ choices, in contrast to expectations based on the prior literature. Moreover, the panel data analysis employed in the paper overcomes common methodological problems (such as autocorrelation, multicollinearity, and heteroscedasticity) and allows the estimation of unbiased and efficient estimators.