Accounting for Intangible Assets: There is Also an Income Statement

This paper makes the point that accounting is not necessarily deficient in omitting intangible assets from the balance sheet: there is also an income statement, and the value of intangible (and other) assets can be ascertained from the income statement. The paper is instructive, not only to those concerned with accounting issues, but also to analysts attempting to value firms with assets missing from the balance sheet.

Columbia Business School Professor Stephen Penman is the author of this Occasional Paper.