Class, I found an interesting research paper on fair value accounting of PP&E under IFRS which allows either historical costor fair value accounting treatment. According to the research, the authors find that only 3% of the firms use fair value accounting for at least one asset class following the IFRS adoption. Also, companies in the sample are equally likely to use historical cost and fair value accounting (Christensen & Nikolaev, 2012). The study asserts that, at this point in time, companies most often chose historical cost over fair value accounting when given the choice. Why? Possibly, companies believe the process is too costly, time-consuming, provides inconsistent/incomparable financial statements from year-to-year, etc.

Christensen, H. B., & Nikolaev, V. V. (2012). Does Fair Value Accounting for Non-Financial Assets Pass the Market Test? Retrieved from http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/valeri.nikolaev/PDF/FairvaluePaper_RAST_Conference.pdf