Fig. 1. Number of firm years by earnings interval: 21,758 firm-years over the period 1987–2001 are classified into earnings intervals over the range À0.075 to +0.075, where earnings is defined as income before extraordinary items (IBEI) scaled by total assets (A). Each interval is of width 0.005, with category 16 including firm-years with earnings greater than or equal to zero and less than 0.005. The figure is truncated at the two ends and includes 10,958 firm-years.