外文翻译--公允价值会计与金融危机：信使者或贡献者？.docVIP

本科毕业论文（设计） 外 文 翻 译 外文出处 Accounting Perspectives 外文作者 Michell.Magnan 原文： Fair Value Accounting and the Financial Crisis: Messenger or Contributor? Fair value accounting is neither a novel concept nor a new practice. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, it was common for firms to value their capital assets using appraised values (i.e., estimates of the net realizable values that the assets would bring in the market). Many early economists also believed that the exit value, or the amount a firm would realize by selling an asset in the market, was the only appropriate basis to construct financial statements (see, among others, Diewert, 2005). However, by the 1930s, abusive valuation practices by some managers led to the enactment of more formal accounting standards by the accounting profession. As a result, historical cost emerged as the dominant practice for reporting most assets and liabilities. Nevertheless, fair value accounting remained an attractive concept to many accounting theorists who formalized its appeal and form over the years. For instance, Staubus (1961), Chambers (1964), and Sterling (1970) argue for the use of exit values in financial reporting (i.e., the net realizable value for the asset). Although FVA was kept as a default option in accounting for some assets (i.e., lower of cost and market), it effectively reentered U.S. firms financial statements only in 1993 through SFAS No. 115 (FASB). Going beyond prior fair value disclosure requirements, SFAS No. 115 mandates that some securities be accounted for at their fair value, thus directly affecting a firms balance sheet and income statement. The main rationale underlying SFAS No. 115 is the reduction of gains trading by financial institutions managers (i.e., the ability to choose how and when unrealized securities portfolio gains are recognized into the income statement). Other accounting pronouncements followed, reinforcing fair v