Author: George Louis Hunt

Publisher:

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 454

ISBN-13:

The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued Statement No. 31, "Accounting and Financial Reporting for Certain Investments and for External Investment Pools", in March 1997. The standard requires governments to report most investments at fair value in the balance sheet and recognize changes in fair value as revenues in the operating statement. Fair value reporting in the public sector has received little research attention. The purpose of this study was to examine the usefulness of fair value reporting of investments in governmental fund financial statements. Three primary research questions were examined by surveying external and internal financial statement users. Do users of governmental fund financial statements (1) use fair value information when analyzing financial statements? (2) find fair value information, cost-based information, and other investment information and disclosures useful? (3) experience significant effects on analyses of financial statements or management of investments? A quasi-experimental design was developed to test the use of fair value information. Survey methodology was employed to collect user perceptions of the usefulness of fair value information, cost information, and other disclosures. Users were also asked about the effects of fair value reporting on external user analyses of financial statements and internal user management of investments. Overall, the results of the research do not support the GASB position that fair value reporting is more useful to statement users. The results were mixed and differences existed between user groups. The majority of respondents used cost information when analyzing governmental fund financial statements. However, no clear preference for fair value reporting or cost-based reporting emerged. Findings revealed that both fair value and cost information are useful to statement readers. Other investment-related disclosures would also be useful to users. Overall, the effects of fair value reporting are not significant for financial statement users. Additional research needs to be conducted to validate these findings.