Prior research has shown that accounting
earnings can be decomposed into two main
components: cash flow and accrual components.
Sloan (1996) investigates the earnings persistence
of reported earnings and their cash flow and
accrual components and finds that the accrual
component is less persistent than the cash flow
component. Moreover, Sloan (1996) examines the
market pricing of earnings and their cash flow and
accrual components and documents that stock
prices act as if investors fixate of earnings. In other
words, investors fail to fully reflect information in
the cash flow and accrual components of earnings
about future earnings.
Many prior studies extend Sloan (1996) by
further decomposing accounting earnings into
several components and their results are consistent
with Sloan (1996). For example, Subramanyam
(1996) and Xie (2001) further decompose the