The Financial Analysts' Forecasts And The Intangible: Do The Ias/Ifrs Lead To An Improvement? [Les Previsions Des Analystes Financiers Et Les Incorporels : Les Ias/Ifrs Apportent-Elles Une Amelioration ?]

Due to the identification and assessment difficulties, the accounting system does not always adequately take into account the intangibles. With the IFRS, there are new accounting rules for these items. The article aims to analyze whether these changes convey more useful information for intangible assets with an improvement of analysts' earnings forecasts. To test this question, we use a sample of 209 firms listed on Euronext over 9 years with the national GAAP from 2000 to 2004 and the IFRS from 2005 to 2009. We find significant lower earnings forecast error and dispersion with the use of IFRS. However, the improvement of analysts' earnings forecasts cannot be explained by the new IFRS recognition rules for intangibles. Rather, for goodwill, we note a decrease of the accuracy and dispersion of earnings forecasts. This decline may be explained by the managerial discretion in the implementation of the impairment test.