Despite accounting conservatism and indicating the firm's required return exceeds its return on equity, equity book values greater than market values (BTM 1) are not rare. The question we address is why. We find BTM 1 is pervasive and persistent. More importantly, BTM 1 is not attributable to...

"What is a company really worth?" is a question asked repeatedly during the recent financial crisis. Attention has been focused on short-term valuation issues, like the "mark-to-market" controversy. Sorting out these issues is complicated by the fact that the market puts a value on shareholder...