García Osma, BeatrizHeras Cristobal, Elena de lasGisbert Clemente, Ana2022-06-302022-06-302017-12-01García Osma, B., Gisbert, A., & de las Heras Cristóbal, E. (2014). Public oversight systems for statutory auditors in the European Union. European Journal of Law and Economics, 44 (3), pp. 517-552.0929-1261https://hdl.handle.net/10016/35364We provide a comparative overview of the process of implementation, harmonization and stabilization of public oversight systems for statutory auditors across the European Union (EU) after Directive 2006/43/EC. We build on institutional change theory to identify potential determinants as to why some countries still lag in this harmonization process. Oversight systems are a key institutional factor to guarantee the quality of financial information, essential to maintain investors’ confidence and deep and stable capital markets. Thus, the harmonization of these systems has long been an objective of the EU. Our analyses serve to identify, analyse and compare how EU countries have incorporated European-wide requirements into their national legal systems. Particularly, we study: (1) basic characteristics of the system and bodies for public oversight, (2) organizational structure, (3) financing (4) transparency, (5) supervisory, and (6) disciplinary mechanisms. We show that significant diversity still exists across systems and that both the incentives for institutional change and the distance between pre-existing systems and the Directive are important explanatory factors of the achieved level of harmonization.eng© SpringerAuditingDirective 2006/43/EUInstitutional differencesOversight systemsDisciplinary systemsHarmonizationAccountingresearch articleG30G38K22M40M48EconomíaEmpresahttps://doi.org/10.1007/s10657-014-9460-1open access5173552European Journal of Law and Economics44AR/0000021752