5 Financial statements have seen an increasing move towards the use of fair values in accounting. Advocates of ‘fair
value accounting’ believe that fair value is the most relevant measure for financial reporting whilst others believe that
historical cost provides a more useful measure.
Issues have been raised over the reliability and measurement of fair values, and over the nature of the current level
of disclosure in financial statements in this area.
Required:
(a) Discuss the problems associated with the reliability and measurement of fair values and the nature of any
additional disclosures which may be required if fair value accounting is to be used exclusively in corporate
reporting. (13 marks)
正确答案:(a) Reliability and MeasurementFair value can be defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability. The fair value canbe thought of as an ‘exit price’. A fair value measurement assumes that the transaction to sel



