In Table 3, we report descriptive statistics by audit strategy group for firm-years ending in calendar year 2000 through
11/14/2004, i.e., firm-years prior to the implementation of PCAOB AS2 and AS3 (‘‘pre-regulation period’’). We create three
audit strategy groups: firms that always announce earnings on or after the audit report date (the POST-ARD group), firms
that always announce prior to the audit report date (the PRE-ARD group), or firms following a MIXED strategy. Presumably
the POST-ARD (PRE-ARD) group believes that the benefits of waiting until the audit report date outweigh (are outweighed
by) the potential costs. There are 926 unique firms (2756 firm-years) in the POST-ARD strategy group and 476 unique firms
(1393 firm-years) in the PRE-ARD strategy group.8