Higher accruals are associated with lower subsequent earnings. We show this phenomenon can be explained by the way sales, profits, and working capital respond to changes in a firm's product markets. Empirically, high accruals predict high subsequent sales growth but a long-lasting drop in both...

There are several explanations for why accruals persist into earnings at lower rates than cash flows. These include that accruals contain estimation error, diminishing returns to investment, and product-markets shocks. We predict that the mixed attribute GAAP measurement model along with the...