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Abstract

Accounting Standards Update 2015-01 formally eliminated the reporting of "extraordinary items" in the income statement for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2015. Gains and losses previously reported as extraordinary items and presented separately below income from continuing operations, are now reported as other gains and losses and included in income from continuing operations. The use of the extraordinary item classification fell sharply after 2002 when gains and losses from the early extinguishment of debt were no longer required to be reported as extraordinary items. By 2003 less than 100 publicly traded firms reported extraordinary items and in 2011 the number was only in the single digits. Finally, in 2013 and 2014 not a single firm in our sample, drawn from the Compustat database, reported an extraordinary item.

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