MANDATORY JOINT AUDIT AND AUDIT QUALITY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EUROPEAN BLUE CHIPS

This study investigates audit quality under joint and single regimes with a sample of large European firms. Both, the economic relevance these companies, fact that impact on should be stronger when audited company is blue-chip firm motivate study. If mandatory were positively associated quality, French firms, since 1966, present higher compared to their peers. The results do not indicate this case. Specifically, similar levels discretionary accruals are observed for other Furthermore, first time in literature, evidence reported indicating firms may even lower than peers, measured by likelihood just beating earnings benchmarks. These expected inform ongoing debate several countries about audits.