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What Do FAS 157 “Fair Values” Really Measure: Value Or Risk?
Author(s) -
Ronen Joshua
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
accounting perspectives
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.238
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1911-3838
pISSN - 1911-382X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1911-3838.2012.00037.x
Subject(s) - fair value , valuation (finance) , shareholder , discounted cash flow , financial instrument , business , economics , market value , mark to market accounting , actuarial science , cash flow , fair market value , intrinsic value (animal ethics) , financial crisis , maturity (psychological) , financial economics , finance , accounting , financial accounting , accounting information system , corporate governance , psychology , philosophy , developmental psychology , environmental ethics , macroeconomics
FAS 157, the U.S. accounting standard that prescribes how fair values of assets and liabilities are to be measured when other U.S. GAAP standards require fair valuation, stipulates that fair values be measured as the exit values of assets and liabilities—the proceeds for assets hypothetically sold on the date of the financial report, and, correspondingly, the amount required to settle liabilities on the date of the financial report. This conceptual article argues that exit values do not reflect the value of the net assets of the firm to shareholders, which is best reflected by discounted cash flows to maturity. Moreover, exit values—biasing fair values downward when markets are illiquid—have a pernicious, systemic risk effect; specifically, they give rise to write‐downs that in turn cause contagion: prices of equities and other financial instruments of peers react negatively, leading to further write‐downs by those peers. This may have aggravated the recent financial crisis. However, while exit values are not proper measures of value to shareholders, they are useful measures of downside risk when prospects turn sour for a firm. Thus, both exit values and discounted cash flows should be presented in financial statements.