Trust in Fair Value Accounting: Evidence from the Field

We survey stakeholders in the financial reporting process to examine trust in fair value accounting. Although respondents demonstrate high confidence in financial statements, they believe that fair value accounting decreases trust in financial reporting and that preparing fair value numbers is costl...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: GOH, Clarence, Lim, Chu Yeong, Ng, Jeffery, PAN, Gary, Ow Yong, Kevin
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
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Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soa_research/1926
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soa_research/article/2953/viewcontent/SSRN_id3924057.pdf
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Institution: Singapore Management University
Language: English
Description
Summary:We survey stakeholders in the financial reporting process to examine trust in fair value accounting. Although respondents demonstrate high confidence in financial statements, they believe that fair value accounting decreases trust in financial reporting and that preparing fair value numbers is costly but beneficial. They also strongly believe in the Conceptual Framework underlying standard setting. Using multivariate regression analyses, we find that perceiving fair value accounting as beneficial is positively associated with trust in it, consistent with the theory of reasoned action that people engage in behavior (e.g., trust) based on expected positive outcomes of that behavior. We find that this positive association increases with stronger beliefs in the Conceptual Framework. Our paper contributes to the fair value literature by providing general insights on trust in fair value accounting and a specific and novel assessment of how the perceived benefits of fair value accounting increase stakeholders' trust in it.