Firm life cycle and the disclosure of estimates and judgments in goodwill impairment tests: Evidence from Australia.

• The disclosure of estimates and judgments used in goodwill impairment tests under International Accounting Standard 36 Impairment of Assets varies by firm life cycle stages in Australia. More specifically, mature firms tend to disclose more than firms in three other stages of the life cycle – introduction, growth and decline. • The disclosure differences between life cycle stages are more pronounced for smaller firms than for larger firms. • The disclosure differences between stages are pronounced for some disclosure items than for other items. The goodwill impairment disclosure literature examines the association between firm-and country-level factors and the disclosure of estimates and judgments used in the goodwill impairment test under International Accounting Standard 36. Although the accounting literature provides competing predictions about the relation between firm life cycle and these disclosures, prior studies did not explore the role of firm life cycle in these disclosures. This paper fills in this gap in the literature, and documents that, in Australia, these disclosures vary by life cycle stages and that firm size moderates this association. We, however, find that the differences are more pronounced for some disclosure items than for others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]