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Determinants of Audit Report Lag: A Meta‐Analysis

This paper provides a meta&#8208;analysis of the determinants of audit report lag, defined as the period between a company's fiscal year end and the audit report date. We group the meta&#8208;analyzed studies into three categories: (a) audit and audit&#8208;related determinants, (b) corporate governance&#8208;related determinants, and (c) firm&#8208;specific determinants. We find that audit opinion and audit season variables increase audit report lag, whereas Big 4 affiliation, nonaudit services, and auditor tenure decrease audit report lag. Among the corporate governance determinants, the existence of a financial expert member on an audit committee, and ownership concentration, reduce audit report lag. Finally, an examination of firm&#8208;level characteristics reveals that firm complexity increases audit report lag, whereas profitability reduces it. We employ a meta&#8208;regression technique and identify publication bias. Although we find some evidence of journal quality as a contributor to publication bias, the extent of publication bias from this source is small.