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Fair Value Accounting and Debt Contracting: Evidence from Adoption of SFAS 159

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  • PETER R. DEMERJIAN
  • JOHN DONOVAN
  • CHAD R. LARSON

Abstract

We examine how fair value accounting affects debt contract design, specifically the use and definition of financial covenants in private loan contracts. Using SFAS 159 adoption as our setting, we find that a small but significant proportion of loans (14.5%) modify covenant definitions to exclude the effects of SFAS 159 fair values. Only a limited number of these modifications exclude assets elected at fair value (less than 7%), while all exclude liabilities elected at fair value. Notably, we document that covenant definition modification is unassociated with ex ante fair value elections. We find that covenant definition modification positively varies with common incentive problems attributed to fair value accounting and negatively varies with benefits attributed to fair value accounting. Our results suggest that fair value accounting is not uniformly detrimental for debt contracting and fair value adjustments are included when they are most likely to improve performance measurement.

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  • Peter R. Demerjian & John Donovan & Chad R. Larson, 2016. "Fair Value Accounting and Debt Contracting: Evidence from Adoption of SFAS 159," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 1041-1076, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:joares:v:54:y:2016:i:4:p:1041-1076
    DOI: 10.1111/1475-679X.12126
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    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Haiping & Zhang, Jing, 2017. "Fair value accounting and corporate debt structure," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 46-57.
    2. Moehrle, S. & Kozloski, T. & Meckfessel, M. & Reynolds-Moehrle, J. & Wen, H., 2018. "Developments in accounting regulation: A synthesis and annotated bibliography of evidence and commentary in the 2016 academic literature," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 49-62.
    3. Loay Salem Mohammad Al-Rahamneh, 2018. "Is Fair Value Accounting an Appropriate Measure of Today's Financial Instruments as more Firms Follow (IFRS)," Journal of Social Sciences (COES&RJ-JSS), , vol. 7(4), pages 260-276, October.
    4. Michael D. Stuart & Richard H. Willis, 2020. "Use of independent valuation specialists in valuing employee stock options: evidence from IPOs," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 438-473, June.
    5. Nemit Shroff, 2017. "Corporate investment and changes in GAAP," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 1-63, March.
    6. Chu, Yongqiang & Liu, Ming & Ma, Tao & Li, Xinming, 2020. "Executive compensation and corporate risk-taking: Evidence from private loan contracts," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    7. Zahn Bozanic & Maria Loumioti & Florin P. Vasvari, 2018. "Corporate Loan Securitization and the Standardization of Financial Covenants," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 45-83, March.
    8. Hans B. Christensen & Valeri V. Nikolaev, 2017. "Contracting on GAAP Changes: Large Sample Evidence," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 1021-1050, December.
    9. Chakravarty, Sugato & Ray, Rina, 2020. "On short-term institutional trading skill, behavioral biases, and liquidity need," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    10. Ryan McDonough & Argyro Panaretou & Catherine Shakespeare, 2020. "Fair value accounting: Current practice and perspectives for future research," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3-4), pages 303-332, March.

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