Speaker:Liang Lihong
Time:Dec. 20, 15:30
Location:Main BLD 418
Speaker Profile:
Liang Lihong, Associate Professor of Accounting Department, Syracuse University Business School (tenure), Ph.D. supervisor, visiting associate professor, Georgetown University, USA. She graduated from the Department of Management Engineering of Beijing University of Technology and received her doctorate and a master's degree in accounting from Pennsylvania State University, USA. Main courses taught: Accounting Principles and Intermediate Accounting (Bachelor's degree, Master's degree, MBA). Professor Liang Lihong focuses on financial accounting, financial market information utilization, stock analyst behavior financial market information utilization, stock analyst behavior academic research. Research results have been published in the Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Accounting Horizons, Journal of Business. Professor Liang Lihong holds part-time academic positions including: current guest editor of Asian Review of Accounting, anonymous reviewer of Contemporary Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies, Management Science and other journals and conference.
Introduction:
This paper examines equity market perceptions of fair value reporting for tangible assets. We identify six events—four designated as increasing, two as decreasing—affecting the likelihood of US adoption of fairvalue reporting for investment property (i.e., real estate) assets, one of the largest asset classes in the world. Fair value adoption would facilitate convergence of US reporting for this asset (which currently requires depreciated historical cost) withIFRS (which requires either recognition or disclosure of fair values). Using a sample of US investment property firms, we document a significantly positive market reaction for movement towards fair value reporting. Consistent with cross-sectional predictions,we find this reaction is increasing for firms with greater commitment to high quality reporting, greater investor demand for fair values and convergence with international standards, and staler asset values. Using a sample of non-US investment property firms,we again document a positive market reaction for these non-US firms to the increased likelihood of fair value adoption in the US. We infer the results for the US (non-US) sample as consistent with anticipated net benefits from movement towards fair valuedue to expected improvements in information and/or comparability (comparability only—as the non-US firms already report fair values).