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One of the key mechanisms of object-oriented programming is inheritance. Some empirical studies show that classes inheriting behavior from more classes (i.e., ancestors) are more defect prone than the other classes. Since various collaborations are found among the instances of classes, classes are not isolated within the source code of object-oriented systems. In this paper, we investigate if classes using classes inheriting behaviour from other classes are more change and defect prone than the other classes. We analyze at least three releases of every system belonging to a suite of seven open source systems and investigate the relations between classes that use/do not use class hierarchies and study the change and defect proneness of those classes. The results frequently show that the clients of classes which inherit behaviour are more change and defect prone. These findings show a new type of correlation …