Cass Knowledge

This paper examines the issue of the relative significance of financial statement recognition and note disclosure in a new context by exploiting the U.K. regulatory environment where old pre-FRS 10 goodwill continues to be disclosed in the notes to the accounts at the same time as new post-FRS 10 goodwill is capitalised. It thus uses a within-firm research method to examine the relative significance of the two goodwill amounts. The analysis is based on a sample of 243 non-financial firms containing amounts of both recognised and disclosed goodwill in their 2002 financial statements.