In Kuwait, corporate law requires each company to appoint at least two external
auditors from separate audit firms. The combination of audit firms that companies may
use varies based on the unique combination of auditors the company appoints.
Therefore, audit quality may also vary from company to company, and, consequently,
variations are expected to exist related to the influence of audit quality on financial
reporting quality across KSE-listed companies. Thus, it is expected that the value
relevance of earnings and book value among KSE-listed firms would probably vary
between those companies audited by Big 4 auditors and non-Big 4 auditors. Firms
audited by the international Big 4 audit firms would be expected to be associated with a
higher value relevance than those audited by the non-Big 4. In Kuwait, where
regulations require that each listed company be audited by two external auditors (Big 4,
non-Big 4 or a combination of both), it is expected that the value relevance of accounting
measures would increase with more frequent use of Big 4 audit firms.