本研究探討異常審計公費與債務資金成本之間的關聯性。本研究預期審計品質與公司的借款利率有關。異常高的審計費用代表著會計師可能獲得賄賂，或從事審計工作所收取到的收入高於正常應有的公費，產生經濟依賴，而此效果可能會削弱會計師的獨立性，進而降低審計品質。而另一種審計努力觀點則指出異常高的審計公費可能反映會計師的努力付出，可以使審計品質得到提升。債權人的借款利率決定會考慮公司的財務資訊風險，而財務資訊風險的判斷可由認知的審計品質窺探。實證結果顯示，異常公費與債務資金成本呈負相關，表示債務資金成本會隨著異常審計公費的增加而減少，顯示債權人認為異常高的審計公費反應了較高的審計品質。

This study explores the relationship between abnormal audit fees and the cost of debt. Abnormal high audit fees represent that auditors may obtain bribes, or the income received from audit work is higher than normal public fees. Hence, it would create economic dependence which may weaken the independence of auditors, thereby reducing the quality of auditing. Another view of audit effort points out that the abnormal high public audit fees may reflect the hard work of the auditors, which can improve the quality of the audit. The creditor’s borrowing interest rate decision will take the company’s financial information risk into account, and the judgment of financial information risk can be peeked by the perceived audit quality. The empirical results show that abnormal audit fees are negatively correlated with the cost of debt funds, indicating that the cost of debt funds will decrease with the increase in abnormal audit fees, showing that creditors believe that abnormally high audit fees reflect higher audit quality.

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