July 25, 2013

GDP Counts R&D

GDP includes R&D in the states. R&D is not merely expense anymore.
(Bloomberg news, Intangible Investment Rewrites Economic History as GDP Meets R&D, Jul 18, 2013)

News also says Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) rewrite GDP all the way back to 1929.
Ahead of US-GAP, R&D became asset. Since I am a system engineer, let’s focus on R&D for software implementation. Regarding to US-GAP, it has already admitted capitalizing software cost after a point where a company uses the developing software for sure. This point was normally after detail design phase completion. But when I checked the website now, timing was changed. Website says after approval of budget for a software implementation, a company can capitalize the cost. (http://www.shinnihon.or.jp/corporate-accounting/commentary/software/2011-04-05.html). Times are changing.  Still, before approval, R&D should be expensed. On the other hand, BEA includes it as GDP.

I can see the difference between accounting person and others.

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