Universitas Gadjah Mada
Faculty of Economics and Business

Monday (1/20), Prof. rer.soc. R. Agus Sartono was officially inaugurated as Professor of the Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Gadjah Mada (FEB UGM), at the Senate Hall of the Universitas Gadjah Mada. Agus Sartono was determined to become a Professor after taking his Bachelor of Management education at FEB UGM, master's education at the School of Business, Western Carolina University, United States, and doctoral education at Innsbruck Innsbruck Social Sciences and Economic, Austria.

The event was also attended by Puan Maharani as the Chairperson of the House of Representative of Republic Indonesia and as a Coordinating Minister for PMK for 2014-2019, Prof. Dr. Muhadjir Effendy as Coordinating Minister for PMK 2019-present, and Dr. Agung Laksono as Watimpres/Menko Kesra for 2009-2014.

In this event, Agus Sartono delivered his inaugural speech entitled "Asymmetric Information, Public Policy Acceptability, and Asset Valuation". He began his speech by giving a description of asymmetric information.

"Asymmetric information is a strategic phenomenon and has a wide impact on everyday life," he said. He said that there had been a change in investment decisions in the current information age, namely the value driver that had shifted from real assets to intangible assets.

"I see the growth of company's and its value will increasingly and determined by the size of intangible assets, while real assets such as factories, machinery or inventories are only enablers," he said.

Agus Hartono also concluded that the company's value is determined by smart ideas and their implementation. Thus, asymmetric information will influence the success of public policies, cause social ineffectiveness, cause moral hazard and adverse selection, market failure, asset values ​​do not reflect true value, and have the potential to cause rent hunters.

"There is always room to continue to test the assumption that the market is always said to be informationally efficient," he added. Agus Hartono emphasized that he also agreed with the developing of models, collecting, and analysing of the information. According to him, it is very important to prevent the occurrence of the behavior of anut grubyuk or herding which will only be exploited by other parties.

Source: Sony Budiarso & Leila Chanifah Zuhri