Narrow Results

The public controversies over the implementation of Statement of Financial Accounting Standard No. 157 (SFAS 157) and its impact on the recent financial crisis motivate us to examine the association between fair values and reporting lags. With a sample of U.S. banking institutions, we find that less verifiable fair value information is associated with longer earnings announcement lag and audit report lag. Longer earnings announcement lags resulting from less verifiable fair value information are due to the additional time of managerial estimations. Less verifiable fair values may also result in longer audit report lags due to the added training for auditors. Our study extends the current literature on fair values and reporting lags. Our findings contribute to the contemporary research on the timeliness of financial information disclosures which promotes the efficient functioning of the economy. Moreover, the findings of our study may be of interest to the global regulators, investors and other financial statement users.

Synopsis

The research problem

This study investigates whether the debt structure of a firm — that is, how a firm organizes its debt contracts — depends on the extent to which fair value measurement is applied to the balance sheet.

Motivation

Most public firms have a nontrivial percentage of balance sheet items measured at fair value under the mixed attribute accounting, and there is a lack of understanding of its effect on the reporting entity’s debt structure. This study focuses on two aspects of the debt structure that have both practical and theoretical relevance, namely the priority structure and the financial flexibility. A priority structure involves the simultaneous use of different priorities of debt and is common among risky borrowers. Survey results show that financial flexibility is of first-order importance regarding the debt policy of firms. Here, financial flexibility refers to a firm’s ability to pursue new investment opportunities via debt issuance.

The test hypotheses

The first hypothesis states that a borrower with a higher percentage of balance sheet items measured at fair value is less likely to have a priority structure. The second hypothesis states that a borrower with a higher portion of balance sheet items measured at fair value likely has a debt structure that is more financially flexible. The third hypothesis states that the fair value of liabilities and the fair value of assets are equally relevant to debt structure decisions.

Target population

This study focuses on nonfinancial firms in North America that are subject to the mixed attribute accounting, which measures a certain percentage of assets and liabilities at fair value.

Adopted methodology

The main tests use multivariate analysis that includes both logistic regressions and OLS regressions. Additional tests include cross-sectional analyses and the Granger causality test.

Analysis

Using a sample constructed from Compustat North America and Capital IQ (6,220 firms and 36,487 firm-year observations), the main tests regress dependent variables, namely the priority structure measures and financial flexibility, on the exposure to fair value measurement.

Findings

Results show that fair value measurement reduces information asymmetry and has favorable effects on the debt structure. A high exposure to fair value measurement reduces the need for a priority structure. A high exposure to fair value measurement also enhances financial flexibility. Additional analyses reveal that the favorable effect mainly comes from assets measured at fair value. The effect becomes weaker with respect to liabilities measured at fair value.