2 For more details, see FAS 157 and FAS 159 - The Fair Value Option for Financial Assets and Financial
Liabilities.
3 Currently, while all unrealized gains or losses on financial instruments do affect a firm’s stockholders’ equity, they do not necessarily directly affect its reported net earnings.本文来自优.文,论-文·网原文请找腾讯752018766 Some gains or losses may flow through an intermediate
performance measure which is labelled Other comprehensive income and which is distinct from reported net
earnings.
4 See McFarland, J. and J. Partridge. 2008. Mark-to-market' accounting rules fuel debate. The Globe and Mail – Report on Business. November 20.
5 Jeffrey, G. 2008. Mark market debate down as a draw. The Bottom Line, December, p. 27.
for merely reflecting the poor underlying economic outlook.6 Barbara Roper, from the Consumer Federation of America, argues that sound accounting principles, such as FVA, led to the exposure of underlying problem assets. In her view, FVA provides more accurate, timely and comparable information to investors than any other accounting alternative.
Theoretical and Empirical Foundations Underlying FVA
FVA’s theoretical and empirical premises are relatively solid. In fact, it is one of the few accounting standard that can be traced back directly to accounting-based scientific research. More specifically, there is consistent empirical evidence, accumulated over the past 20 years, that a firm’s stock price is more closely associated with the market value of its underlying financial or real assets than with their historical cost, i.e., their purchase price plus related expenses.7 The superior relevance of market-derived values is even more obvious in the case of financial derivatives which historical cost is often close to zero but which market value can fluctuate widely.8 In other words, fair values, or marked to market values, have been found to be more relevant indicators of firm value than traditional historical cost-based figures.9 浅析网络时代背景下中国的自助旅游市场
An interesting early study on the relevance and implications from FVA was performed by Bernard, Merton and Palepu (1995). For many years, Denmark’s accounting standard-setting and banking regulatory authorities have relied on mark-to-market valuation for the assets of their commercial banks.10 Bernard, Merton and Palepu find that Danish banks’ book values, which reflect mark-to-market valuations, seem to provide more reliable information to investors than historical cost-based figures then provided by U.S. banks. Moreover, they do not find evidence hat Danish bank executives manipulate mark-to-market numbers that Danish
6 McFarland, J. and J. Partridge. Idem.本文来自优.文,论-文·网原文请找腾讯32-49114
7 See, among many papers, Barth, M E, W H Beaver and W R Landsman. 2001. The relevance of the value relevance literature for accounting standard setting: another view. Journal of Accounting and Economics 31, pp 77–
104; Landsman, W.R. 2006. Fair Value Accounting for Financial Instruments: Some Implications for Bank
Regulation. Bank for International Settlements Paper.
8 Venkatachalam, M. 1996. Value-relevance of banks’ derivatives disclosures. Journal of Accounting and
Economics 22, pp 327–55.
9 While studies take many different forms, the most widely used approach closely resembles the following
(simplified version of a regression):
Priceit = β0 + β1Assets(at costs)it + β2Liabilitiesit + β3Unrealized Gain(Loss)it
Where i represents a specific firm, and t, a given year-end. Variables are measured in $, in $ per share, or standardized by proxies for firm size. Price equals a firm’s stock market price while both Assets and Liabilities are as on the balance sheet (consistent with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). Unrealized Gains(Losses) reflect the difference between an asset market value (according to FVA) and its book value (according to GAAP). FVA-measured information is deemed to be more relevant for investors if results from the regression model show that β3 is positive and statistically significant.
10 Bernard, V., R. Merton, and K. Palepu (1995). Mark-to-Market Accounting for Banks and Thrifts: Lessons from the Danish Experience. Journal of Accounting Research 33 (Spring), 1-32.