Arthur Young & Company recently surveyed a sample of the Financial Analysts Federation’s membership in order to determine whether financial analysts use the inflation- adjusted accounting information required by Financial Accounting Standards Board Statement No. 33. Overall, the survey results credit Statement No. 33 information with having achieved only modest utility to date. The responding analysts express no great enthusiasm for the information (especially the constant dollar information) and little interest in adding to the current disclosure requirements or in extending the requirements to other companies.

On the other hand, neither do the results indicate any great demand for removing the requirements or any clear disavowal of the information’s usefulness. The responses from both users and nonusers of the information do suggest, however, that analysts might find the information more useful if the requirements were amended so as to make inflation-adjusted disclosures more comparable across companies. Removal of the “experimental” label and presentation of the information in financial statement format might also enhance analysts’ perception of the information’s utility.