The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of joint audit on earnings conservatism,\nour proxy for audit quality, of companies listed on the Egyptian stock exchange, by examining\nwhether companies audited by two independent auditors are more conservative than\ncompanies audited by a single auditor. In addition, we investigate whether this relationship is\naffected by the type of joint audit regimes (i.e., voluntary versus mandatory), and the mix of\njoint auditors appointed (i.e., two big 4 auditors, or two non-big 4 auditors, or one Big 4\nauditor paired with one non-big 4 auditor). To test our hypotheses, we use a sample of 32\ncompanies listed on the Egyptian stock exchange during the period 2009 through 2013. The\nresults of our multiple regression analyses show that companies audited by joint auditors are\nmore conservative than companies audited by single auditors. However, we find no\nsignificant difference in levels of earnings conservatism between companies audited by joint\nauditors mandatorily and companies audited by joint auditors voluntarily. We also find no\nsignificant difference in levels of earnings conservatism between companies audited by two\nbig4 auditors and companies audited by two non-big4 auditors, or by one big4 auditor paired\nwith one non-big4 auditor.
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