5. Sample and statistical results One hundred companies listed in NYSE were selected randomly using the data base of the Wall Street Journal for the period 1999-2003, the available complete data was for only 90 companies. Table II presents classification of the companies according to their activities and the mean and the standard deviation for the variables used in the model. The research design is structured primarily on the basis of calculating three different measures of the quality of earnings on the industry level and on the company level. The analysis is directed at testing whether there is consistency among the three measures for one industry or one company in order to have strong evidence about whether the quality of earnings is low or high. The quality of earnings will be marked as questionable if there is no consistency among the three measures. In this case, the quality of earnings measure needs more analysis and investigations and may be in some cases different techniques to confirm whether it is high or low. Table III presents the results of the empirical study for the industry level. As shown in Table III, there is consistency among the three measures of the quality of earning for the full sample, the banks, insurance, and investment industry and for the technology industry. For the manufacturing companies and the mining, oil and gas companies the quality of earnings is questionable and cannot be assessed based on these three measures. Table IV presents the empirical study results for the company level. As shown in Table IV, the manufacturing industry has 13 companies (42 percent) with high quality of earnings, one company with low quality of earnings, and 17 companies (55 percent) their quality of earnings measure is questionable and cannot be assessed based on this model and needs further investigation and analysis.