The usefulness of fair value estimates for financial decision making: a literature review

Abstract

The usefulness of fair value estimates for financial decision making: a literature review The objective of this discussion is to answer the fundamental question: ‘Are Fair Value estimates current-ly useful for financial decision making?’ Through a systematic review we analyse the qualitative second-ary data from dedicated scientific articles, based on the relevance and reliability of Fair Value estimates, and find out that there are still ongoing problems with reliability of information mainly because of the managerial estimation process and the ‘human factor’ in general. We identify 3 problem areas that are closely interconnected: (1) the business entity, (2) auditing, and (3) financial regulators and accounting academics. Each area has its own set of challenges and several suggestions are given to improve the reliability and relevance of Fair Value estimates, but a lot of those propositions require dedicated attention from accounting academics, financial regulators, and standard-setters. All in all, there is a clear trend that the situation with Fair Value estimates (especially those of Level 3) has been improving recently, and Level 3 estimates can indeed be used in the current financial decision process, but with some level of scepticism.

Keywords

• Fair Value Accounting
• Fair Value estimates
• Fair Value hierarchy
• relevance
• reliability
• faithful presentation