The Reliability of Fair Value vs. Historical Cost Information: Evidence from Closed-End Mutual Funds

Posted: 17 Sep 2002

See all articles by Thomas J. Carroll

Thomas J. Carroll

University of Iowa - Department of Accounting

Thomas J. Linsmeier

Financial Accounting Standards Board

Kathy R. Petroni

Michigan State University - Eli Broad College of Business and Eli Broad Graduate School of Management

Abstract

This research examines the value-relevance of fair value accounting relative to historical cost accounting for financial instruments held by closed-end mutual funds to provide evidence on the reliability of fair value estimation. Closed-end funds are considered because their balance sheets and income statements typically are reported at fair value and there is great variation in the types of securities held by various funds. For a sample of 143 closed-end mutual funds during 1982-1997, we find a significant association between stock prices and the fair value of investment securities, as well as between stock returns and fair value securities gains and losses, even after controlling for historical costs. To examine whether differences in the perceived reliability of the investment securities fair values affects investors' assessments of the usefulness of the information, we examine the association between stock price metrics and fair values across different fund types (e.g., publicly held equity securities from G7 countries, equity securities other than those publicly held from G7 countries, U.S. government or municipal securities, corporate bonds). We find that in all cases there is a significant association between the stock price metrics and fair values. This suggests that the need to estimate fair values for securities traded in thin markets, such as private or non-G7 equities, does not cause the incremental value-relevance of fair value information to be eliminated. Our strong and consistent findings in the closed-end fund setting suggest that reliability problems in measuring the fair values of investment securities are not the primary explanation for the inconsistency in prior research results; instead such inconsistency may be attributed to the incomplete availability of fair value measures in other settings.

Keywords: closed-end mutual funds, fair value accounting, financial instruments

JEL Classification: G23, M41, M44

Suggested Citation

Carroll, Thomas J. and Linsmeier, Thomas J. and Petroni, Kathy Ruby, The Reliability of Fair Value vs. Historical Cost Information: Evidence from Closed-End Mutual Funds. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=316692

Thomas J. Carroll

University of Iowa - Department of Accounting ( email )

108 Pappajohn Business Building
Iowa City, IA 52242-1000
United States

Thomas J. Linsmeier

Financial Accounting Standards Board ( email )

401 Merritt 7
P.O. Box 5116
Norwalk, CT 06856-5116
United States
203-956-5208 (Phone)
203-847-6030 (Fax)

Kathy Ruby Petroni (Contact Author)

Michigan State University - Eli Broad College of Business and Eli Broad Graduate School of Management ( email )

East Lansing, MI 48824-1121
United States
517-432-2924 (Phone)
517-432-1101 (Fax)

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Abstract Views
15,033
PlumX Metrics