The Persistence and Valuation Effects of Classification Shifting

Abstract

Classification shifting is defined in the literature as managers’ intentional classification of certain core expenses as income-decreasing special items with the intent to inflate reported core performance. We develop and validate a new measure of firms’ propensity to engage in this reporting strategy, documenting that a firm’s use of classification shifting is persistent over time and relates to its use by peer firms. We also find that the cross-sectional variation in firms’ use of classification shifting is increasing in more recent years and that this strategy is associated with higher future firm valuation and stock returns. As one possible channel through which this valuation effect orginates, we hypothesize and find evidence consistent with classification shifting allowing firms to increase their debt capacity, thereby shifting risks from shareholders to debtholders.