Accounting literature has widely investigated the informativeness of financial statements through the association between accounting value and market value. Several studies highlighted a tendency to a progressive decline in the value relevance of accounting measures due mainly to the inadequate accounting for intangibles. This paper reports a descriptive analysis of the impact of intangible assets in the financial statements of Italian listed companies. Successively, using multiple regression analysis, it highlights the informativeness of financial statement. Finally, it tests informational consequences of the accounting treatment of R&D on the value relevance of earnings and book value.
Keywords: Value relevance, earnings, book value, stock returns, stock prices, intangible assets, R&D