Missing R&D

We investigate whether missing R&D expenditures in financial statements indicates a lack of innovation activity. Patent records reveal that 10.5% of missing R&D firms file and receive patents, which is 14 times greater than zero R&D firms. Pseudo-Blank R&D firms (missing R&D firms with patent activity) demonstrate patent filings analogous to the bottom 90–95% of the positive R&D population. Multivariate difference-in-differences tests indicate that Pseudo-Blank R&D firms are more likely to report R&D after an exogenous auditor change. Finally, we provide simple Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate different methods to handle missing R&D in empirical research. Lien vers l'article

KOH, P.S. and REEB, D. (2015). Missing R&D. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 60(1), pp. 73-94.

Mots clés : #Research-and-Development, #R&D-reporting, #Disclosure, #Blank-R&D, #R&D-simulation