Could fair value accounting be useful, under NPM models, for users of financial information?

Abstract

International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) are an essential quality-control factor for Public Sector Accounting Systems in European Union member states. The compliance of the latter systems with IPSAS could be influenced to a large degree by perceptions of how useful these standards are in enabling the needs of financial information users to be met. Therefore, the aim of this article is to investigate the capability of fair value accounting to improve the usefulness of governmental financial information so that administrative reforms may be undertaken with the implementation of New Public Management (NPM) postulates. The theoretical section of the article studies the relevance of fair value accounting with respect to meeting the information requirements for implementing NPM models. This is followed by the results of empirical research carried out to determine the opinions of one of the main groups of information users concerning the practicality of fair value accounting and its association with the solvency and feasibility of fair value measures. To achieve this aim, we applied the χ2 test and the ρ Spearman test and obtained findings about the capability of fair value accounting to meet the new information requirements under NPM models more effectively than under historical cost accounting.