Testing Comparability and Objectivity of Exit Value Accounting.

Abstract This article assesses the relative comparability and objectivity of an exit value system in comparison with financial accounting practice. Assessments of relative comparability and objectivity of various market-based valuation systems, in comparison with traditional accounting practice, are needed for the following reasons. First, alternative valuation systems have received considerable attention by academic accountants in the past decade. Scanning the past ten years' issues of this journal revealed 54 articles concerning some aspect of an "unorthodox" accounting valuation system. Second, these alternative accounting valuation systems are receiving increasing attention from the nonacademic portion of the profession, as in the Financial Executive Institute study on Current Value Accounting. Finally, systematic efforts in evaluating alternative valuation systems with respect to either comparability or objectivity are extremely limited. The approach was to apply operational definitions of comparability and objectivity to both book values and market values of a single business asset.