Audit Partner Tenure and Audit Fees: The Role of Regulatory Disclosure Requirements in Western Europe

ABSTRACT This paper examines the role of country‐level regulatory disclosure requirements in moderating the relationship between audit partner tenure and audit fees. Using a sample of publicly listed companies in Western Europe, our findings reveal that audit partners with longer tenure charge higher fees, reflecting their incremental contribution to the audit process. This fee premium is more pronounced in countries with weaker disclosure requirements, where companies pay 15.33% higher audit fees when compared to companies with stronger regulatory requirements, highlighting the critical role of audit partners' firm‐specific tenure in providing assurance about the credibility of financial information in such contexts. Additional analyses show that a new EU regulatory disclosure requirement had a positive effect on audit fees only in previously weak regulatory disclosure requirement settings, confirming the importance of audit partner tenure in explaining the high audit fee premiums. Overall, our study provides valuable insights for policymakers, practitioners and academics.