The Impact of Audit Firm Reputation on The Audit Efficiency, The COVID-19 pandemic Does it matter: Evidence from Egypt

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether audit firm reputation provides insight into audit efficiency of listed companies in Egypt.Audit report lag as a proxy for audit efficiency is compared between firms audited by Big four auditors and non-Big four.The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the accounting profession to new dangers, difficulties, and significant concerns that have an impact on audit efficiency.This paper uses an empirical research method to test the hypotheses by using Difference in Differences approach on the sample of listed companies in Egypt during 2018-2021, the results of the study indicate that there is a positive and significant effect of the reputation of the audit company on the efficiency of the audit in the Egyptian practice environment.