審計報告時間落差為財務報表截止日至查核報告日之間經過的天數，此天數愈長表示審計人員花費愈多查核時間。過去有關審計報告時間落差的研究，不外乎探討可能造成查核延遲的因素、其造成的後果以及對審計品質的影響，然而審計品質並非僅有單一面向，各財報使用者認知的審計品質亦可體現審計的價值。本研究由市場角度出發，以2003年至2019年的美國上市公司為樣本，將審計報告時間落差拆解為正常與異常部份，並利用累積異常報酬和未預期盈餘之間的盈餘反應係數，說明異常審計報告時間落差如何影響投資者對審計品質的看法。異常審計報告時間落差一方面可能代表查核人員的增額投入，可以提升審計品質；另一方面也可能為公司財務狀況不佳的警訊，反而使審計品質下降。實證結果顯示，投資者認為異常審計報告時間落差可以強化審計品質，並且在投資者普遍認為較有疑慮的高應計項目公司中，更為顯著。

This paper examines how abnormal audit report lags affect investors’ perception of audit quality. Audit report lags (ARLs) are defined as the number of days between the fiscal year-end and the date of the audit report, which will determine the release of annual reports. We use a two-stage regression model to empirically examine the relationship. In the first stage, we calculate the abnormal ARL by abstracting the residual from an ARL model, and we use earnings response coefficients (ERCs) as the proxy of investors’ perception of audit quality in the second stage. Using a large sample of U.S. firms over the period 2003-2019, we find that abnormal audit report lags have a positive impact on investors’ perception of audit quality, and this finding is robust to different windows of cumulative abnormal returns. Also, compared to low-accruals firms, this result is more pronounced in high-accruals firms. Overall, investors perceive abnormal ARL as a positive sign of auditors’ additional work on collecting more evidence to detect material misstatement in financial statements.

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