Economic Consequences of Fair Value Accounting and a Change in the Distribution Rule

Takuma Kochiyama and 拓磨 河内山

No 122, Working Paper Series from Center for Japanese Business Studies (HJBS), Graduate School of Commerce and Management Hitotsubashi University

Abstract: This research examines the economic consequences of fair value accounting and a change in the distribution rule. In Japan, fair value accounting for financial instruments was mandated from 2001, and unrealized revaluation profits were to be included in income statements. As an institutional correspondence to the change in accounting standards, Japanese Commerce Law implemented the deduction of revaluation profits from distributable profits. However, from 2006, the Japanese Company Act changed its distribution rule to include revaluation profits in distributable profits. Utilizing such a unique institutional setting, I investigated whether fair value adjustments are related to dividends and whether the change in the distribution rule had an impact on companies' dividend policies. The results show that the change in the distribution rule influenced companies' dividend policies, especially Japanese firms, as they tend to pay out revaluation profits as allowed by the Company Act.

Keywords: fair value accounting; dividend policy; earning persistence; distribution rule (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2011-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://hermes-ir.lib.hit-u.ac.jp/hermes/ir/re/19122/070hibsWP_122.pdf

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hit:hjbswp:122

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Paper Series from Center for Japanese Business Studies (HJBS), Graduate School of Commerce and Management Hitotsubashi University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Digital Resources Section, Hitotsubashi University Library ().