A Theory of Principles-Based Classification

Abstract

We study a firm's decision to classify transactions as recurring or nonrecurring in a setting with no fixed classification scheme, but with the following principle: recurring transactions must be more persistent than nonrecurring ones. Under this principle, equilibrium firm behavior provides a new explanation for the observed relationship between income and classifications. Moreover, we find that market prices are more informative under principles-based classifications than they would be under a hypothetical, optimally chosen specific classification rule