The relevance to firm valuation of capitalising intangible assets in total and by category

Debate about the appropriate treatment of intangible assets can benefit from knowledge about the relevance of their financial statement capitalisation to valuation of firms. With rules permitting or requiring intangible asset capitalisation, Australia provides an ideal setting to obtain this evidence. This paper reports findings that indicate that capitalisation of intangibles is value-relevant for Australia's largest firms. Results indicate that investors place greater value on capitalised goodwill than on other categories of capitalised balance sheet items. Similarly, capitalisation of identifiable intangible assets adds value to large firms. However, research and development capitalisation does not affect the value of firms in our study.

Masculine, feminine or neutral? In-company equal opportunities policies in Irish and French MNC retailing

Several problematic aspects of women's paid employment - e.g. low pay and lack of promotional opportunities - are exacerbated by the segregation of women and men into different occupations. In this article, the potential of in-store equal opportunities policies to break down such gender segregation will be explored, through consideration of the existence and implementation of these policies in twenty-two multinational retail companies in Dublin and Paris. It will be argued that, with one notable exception, the instore equal opportunities policies are effectively neutralized, and furthermore are neutralized in nationally specific ways which can be related to differences between France and Ireland in the organization of labour-market regulation and in women's labour-force participation (LFP). The case-study findings also suggest that the 'country' variable has a stronger effect on the existence and implementation of these policies than the extent of a shop's links to an overseas headquarters. The findings of this study have implications for both the equity of women's incorporation into the paid labour force and understanding of aspects of HRM in branches of multinational companies.

The Role of Non-Market Valuation in Forest Management and Recreation Policy

Forests, and particularly those where native and mixed species are gown, provide a variety of non-wood values, important among which are recreation and environmental services. Substantial progress has been made in recent years in estimating economic values on these services. A considerable amount of research on forest values has been carried out recently in tropical and sub-tropical eastern Australia, some of which is reported in the following papers. The need for estimates of non-wood forest benefits is apparent, and it is clear that further development of techniques and a greater understanding of the way these values can be integrated into public-sector decision making is required.