The Economic Impact of SFAS NO. 157

Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 157, “Fair Value Measurements,” (SFAS 157) defines fair value, establishes a three tiered framework for measuring fair value and expands the required disclosures about fair value measurements. The objective of this study is to examine and evaluate the benefits of the information disclosed by SFAS 157. The results of our study indicated that a large majority of the inputs are observable in that 93.5% of the sample financial assets and 93.1% of the sample financial liabilities were measured by level 1 or 2 criteria. However, we found a mismatch between assets and liabilities subject to the three tiers of fair value measurements. The companies in our sample disclosed $18.8 trillion in total assets, with 51%, or $18.8 trillion in total assets, with 51%, or 9.5 trillion reported at fair value. Whereas, sample company liabilities totaled 16.1 trillion with only16.1 trillion with only 3.7 trillion or 23% reported at fair value.     

Fast simulations in credit risk

We consider the problem of simulating tail loss probabilities and expected losses conditioned on exceeding a large threshold (expected shortfall) for credit portfolios. Our new idea, called the geometric shortcut, allows an efficient simulation for the case of independent obligors. It is even possible to show that, when the average default probability tends to zero, its asymptotic efficiency is higher than that of the naive algorithm. The geometric shortcut is also useful for models with dependent obligors and can be used for dependence structures modeled with arbitrary copulae. The paper contains the details for simulating the risk of the normal copula credit risk model by combining outer importance sampling with the geometric shortcut. Numerical results show that the new method is efficient in assessing tail loss probabilities and expected shortfall for credit risk portfolios. The new method outperforms all known methods, especially for credit portfolios consisting of weakly correlated obligors and for evaluating the tail loss probabilities at many thresholds in a single simulation run.     

Information source usage by prospective home buying consumers

Given the fact that millions of home properties are bought and sold each year, what are the methods by which Americans go about searching out prospective homes? This study endeavors to examine the use of information sources by prepurchase and postpurchase home searchers as they seek out prospective homes. Three prepurchase groups and one postpurchase group are used in this study in order to make this determination. The findings reveal that during each stage of home search and purchase, there are certain types of information sources that are relied on in home search. The study also reveals that certain other information sources are utilized for locating and in arranging for the purchase of a home.     

Modifying the retail classification system for more timely marketing strategies

New retail problems and developments necessitate new and complete retail classification systems which can be used to formulate basic strategies. Ten common retail characteristics can be used to classify retailers into five categories perceived as occupying different places on the same continuous scale. As the retailer gradually moves from the end of the scale concerned with basically tangible products to the other end related to basically intangible products, the retail strategies in terms of product, place, promotion, price, and inventory control will also change gradually and accordingly. *** DIRECT SUPPORT *** A00BV026 00004     

International Implications of the Cost of Compliance with the External Audit Requirements of Section 404 of Sarbanes–Oxley

The Sarbanes–Oxley ACT (SOX) was effective for many large U. S. companies for fiscal years ending on or after December 15, 2004. Some, cross listed, non U. S., companies must comply with the provisions of Section 404 (404) of SOX for fiscal periods ending on or after July 15, 2006. The purposes of this study are to review the implications of SOX 404, to assess SOX 404’s potential impact on world-wide securities regulation, assess the impact of SOX 404 on external audit fees for the initial group of filers during the first 2 years it was effective and assess SOX 404’s prospective economic impact on foreign companies that cross list their securities in the U. S. Our finding indicated that audit fees increased by an average of 65% for the initial group of filers in the first year SOX 404 was effective and by .9% in the second year. This increase was reflected in a .5% decrease in earnings for these companies. We conclude that although similar results might be expected for foreign companies that cross list, the implementation costs do not provide sufficient reason to weaken or eliminate SOX 404’s requirements at this time.