Value relevance of fair values in different investor protection environments

•The value relevance of fair values varies across jurisdictions.•The value relevance of fair value estimates increases with investor protection.•Only market values are value relevant in weak investor protection environments.•The usefulness of fair value accounting to investors varies across countries.

This paper examines whether the value relevance of fair values varies across investor protection environments. By analyzing financial firms from 34 countries this study finds evidence that fair values, irrespective of the level in the fair value hierarchy, are value relevant in countries with a strong or medium investor protection environment. In a weak investor protection environment, only market prices (level 1) are relevant to investors. In addition, the results indicate that the difference in value relevance between market prices (level 1) and fair value estimates (level 3) decreases with the quality of investor protection.