Audit report delays in the mandatory joint audit setting: a comparative study between the European Union and the MENA region

Purpose This study aims to examine and compare the mandatory joint audit report delays across joint audit pairs between the European Union and the MENA region. Design/methodology/approach This study uses data from nonfinancial companies listed on the French, Moroccan and Tunisian stock exchanges from 2014 to 2023 and uses multiple regression models to analyze the data. Findings In France, joint audits involving two Big Four firms produce the shortest delays. In Morocco, pairs of two non-Big Four local auditors are associated with the shortest delays, whereas in Tunisia, the shortest delays occur when firms are audited by two non-Big Four international auditors. French firms generally exhibit shorter delays than Tunisian firms, except for the two non-Big Four international auditor pairs in Tunisia. Moroccan firms report faster than French and Tunisian firms, except, again, for the two non-Big Four international auditor pairs in Tunisia. Additional analyses show that differences in audit report delays across joint-audit pairings are minimal among large firms in all three countries and that the presence of at least one industry-specialized auditor has no meaningful effect in most pairings. Practical implications The findings provide regulators and policymakers with evidence on how joint-auditor pairings affect audit timeliness across different institutional settings and highlight important cross-country variations in mandatory joint-audit regimes. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine and compare audit report delays across mandatory joint-audit regimes in the European Union and the MENA region, as well as between developed and developing countries. It also investigates the effects of firm size and auditor industry specialization on these delays. Furthermore, it is among the first to use a six-category classification of joint-auditor pairings.