Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
12-1988
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Business Administration
Major Professor
Hartwell C. Herring III
Committee Members
James H. Scheiner, Michael C. Ehrhardt, Mary Sue Younger
Abstract
An unresolved issue is whether investors find current cost information useful. The Financial Accounting Standards Board eliminated the required disclosure of current cost and constant dollar data by large corporations, noting that research had concluded that the data were not widely used. However, prior research consisting of user surveys and stock return-based information content studies reported mixed evidence concerning the usefulness of current cost data to investors. Additional research is needed to determine whether the Financial Accounting Standards Board acted prematurely when it reversed its policy of requiring large companies to report annual current cost information.
This study investigates the usefulness of current cost and constant dollar data for identifying future takeover targets. Since takeovers often result in increased stock prices of target companies, the ability to identify takeovers in advance might allow investors the opportunity to achieve additional wealth by investing in future target companies.
The research was accomplished by developing and testing five takeover prediction models, including a historical cost model and four price-adjusted models. Logistic regression was used to estimate the models. The logit models included financial variables constructed from historical cost, constant dollar, and current cost data. Variable values were computed for a sample of target companies which were acquired between 1981 and 1985, and for a sample of nontarget companies.
The usefulness of current cost and constant dollar data was evaluated by comparing the takeover prediction abilities of current cost and constant dollar models to the prediction ability of the historical cost model. The empirical results failed to support the research hypotheses that current cost models would be superior to historical cost and constant dollar models for identifying takeover targets. However, the predictions of all five models were superior to the predictions expected by chance alone.
Recommended Citation
Walter, Richard M., "A comparison of the usefulness of current cost, constant dollar, and historical cost information for identifying takeover targets. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1988.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/11983