National Differences in the Disclosure of Intangible Assets in IFRS

This survey focuses on the national differences in reporting intangible assets in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Based on hand-collected data and narrative financial information, it presents and compares the main characteristics of intangibles from a sample of 280 pharmaceutical companies over the period 2013–2017.Most companies disclose intangibles typically in the notes, with some variations depending on the country. Conversely, “big pharma” companies, especially European ones, disclose intangibles by function because they are too many to be reported by nature.Disclosure by function also indicates the riskiness of intangibles.These findings suggest that some national features have survived IFRS adoption, and that the disclosure of intangibles could benefit from further standardization based on functional classifications