THE CHOICES BETWEEN FAIR VALUE AND HISTORICAL COST ACCOUNTING FOR NON-CURRENT REAL ASSETS AT LATVIAN, LITHUANIAN AND ESTONIAN LISTED COMPANIES DURING THE REPORTING YEAR OF 2011

Stock investors require financial statements of listed companies for their investment decision-making. J. Gassen and K. Schwedler (2008) have empirically proved that EU investors who use financial statements prefer reported assets’ fair values over historical costs. The purpose of this study is to test whether the Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian listed companies set accounting policies for their non-current real assets in favor of EU investors who prefer fair values over historical costs. The results of this study indicate that the EU investors’ needs for fair value reporting are not met at most Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian listed companies.