This section discusses the development of the contracting literature and contractual uses of accounting. It develops implications for relative abilities of earnings and cash flows to forecast future cash flows and for the times series properties of earnings and cash flows. The modern economic theory of the firm views the firm as a set of contracts between a multitude of parties. The underlying hypothesis is that the firm's "contractual designs, both implicit and explicit, are created to minimize transactions costs between specialized factors of production" (Holmstrom and Tirole, 1989, p. 63; see also Alchian, 1950; Stigler, 1951; and Fama and Jensen,.
