Dr. Pascal Horni

Work at ZHAW

Position

Research Associate / Project Leader

Focus

• Public Policy Evaluation and Causal Inference
• Public Finance and Public Financial Management
• Public Sector Accounting and Auditing

Teaching

• Bachelor’s Degree Program in Business Administration with Specialization in Politics and Management
• Master in Business Administration – Major Public Management

Professional development teaching

MAS Arts Management

Experience

• Research assistant
  Institute of Public Management, Zurich University of Applied Sciences
  10 / 2015 - 08 / 2017
• Audit Associate
  Deloitte Switzerland
  10 / 2014 - 09 / 2015
• Short Term Supporter Credit Department
  Falcon Private Bank Ltd., Zurich
  02 / 2012 - 02 / 2013

Education and Continuing education

Education

• PhD (Dr. rer. pol.) / Politics and Public Administration
  University of Konstanz
  08 / 2018 - 04 / 2025
• Master of Science / Business Administration with a Major in Public and Nonprofit Management
  Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) in cooperation with Lucerne University of Applied Sciences (HSLU)
  09 / 2015 - 07 / 2017
• Bachelor of Science / Business Administration with Specialization in Economics and Politics
  Zurich University of Applied Sciences
  09 / 2011 - 07 / 2014

Network

ORCID digital identifier

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4012-6754

Social media

LinkedIn

Projects

• Statistical Analysis of Capacity-Building Progress of Supreme Audit Institutions in English-Speaking Africa / Project leader / completed
• Evaluation and Improvement of Financial Controlling for City Governance in Winterthur / Co-project leader / completed
• Scoping workshops with the Internal Audit unit of the Ministry of Finance of the Arab Republic of Egypt / Project leader / completed
• Cross-border crisis management Germany - Switzerland - Austria / Team member / completed
• PULSE - Public Sector Accounting Assessment / Team member / completed
• Fiscal Stress and Resilience Assessment Framework for Swiss Municipalities / Team member / completed
• Research note on the Swiss public pension system and its treatment in public sector accounting / Project leader / completed
• Stocktake of current Multilateral development bank and bilateral donor support for IPSAS Accrual Accounting Implementation / Project leader / completed
• Stocktaking of Public Sector Accounting and Reporting Environment in PULSAR Countries / Team member / completed
• Capacity building on state budget accounting in Egypt / Project leader / completed
• Annual Capacity and Performance Assessment of Kenian County Governments / Team member / completed
• PSAS Gap Analyse Republik Serbien / Team member / completed

Publications

Articles in scientific journal, peer-reviewed

• Horni, P. (2026) ‘Who says what and why? : the reception of IPSAS-based reform in the European Union’, Public Money & Management. doi: 10.1080/09540962.2026.2643900.
• Horni, P. (2024) ‘When expertise is not enough : explaining the European Commission’s non-success in the integration of public sector accounting’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 63(6), pp. 1886–1909. doi: 10.1111/jcms.13705.
• Horni, P. (2024) ‘Is who they are, what they prefer? Understanding bureaucratic elites” policy preferences for European integration of government accounting’, European Policy Analysis, 10(3), pp. 449–475. doi: 10.1002/epa2.1215.
• Horni, P. (2021) ‘Voter turnout and abstention pricing : quasi-experimental evidence on the effects of a marginal increase in the monetary enforcement of compulsory voting’, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties. doi: 10.1080/17457289.2021.1994579.
• Yerly, N., Trinkler, G. and Horni, P. (2017) ‘Rechnungslegungsnormen und Schuldenbremsen in den Schweizer Kantonen : komplementär oder konkurrierend?’, Expert Focus, 91(8), pp. 491–495.
• Horni, P., Yerly, N. and Trinkler, G. (2017) ‘Debt containment rules in the era of true and fair accounting : fiscal leeway between hammer and anvil’, Yearbook of Swiss Administrative Science, pp. 104–115. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-4659.

Book chapters, peer-reviewed

• Horni, P. and Galey, J. (2022) ‘Politische Kommunikation im Zeitalter sozialer Medien : eine Analyse des Twitter Diskurses zur Klimapolitik in der Schweiz’, in Pleger, L. E. and Mertes, A. (eds) Digitale Transformation der öffentlichen Verwaltung in der Schweiz : Stand, Entwicklungslinien und Praxisbeispiele. Wiesbaden: Springer, pp. 173–192. doi: 10.1007/978-3-658-36591-2_8.
• Horni, P. and Köhli, M. (2022) ‘Local government auditing in Switzerland’, in Ferry, L. and Ruggiero, P. (eds) Auditing practices in local governments : an international comparison. Bingley: Emerald, pp. 139–147. doi: 10.1108/978-1-80117-085-720221015.

Written conference contributions, peer-reviewed

• Hanke, M. C., Horni, P. and Schmidli, F. (2025) ‘Mission (im-)possible? Empirical evidence on the sustainability orientation of Swiss museums’, in 25th EURAM Annual Conference, Florence, Italy, 22-25 June 2025.
• Fuchs, S. et al. (2025) ‘Building robust finances : how to assess and drive financial resilience at the Swiss local government level?’, in EGPA PSG XII Spring Workshop, Coimbra, Portugal, 8-9 May 2025.
• Horni, P. (2019) ‘The political economy of administrative policy harmonization in the EMU : a discourse network analysis of the EPSAS project’, in ECPR General Conference 2019, Wroclaw, Poland, 4-7 September 2019.
• Horni, P. and Bergmann, A. (2019) ‘Accuracy or rule of thumb? : taking stock of current value estimation practices for GFS reporting purpose’, in 19th EURAM Annual Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, 26-28 June 2019.

Other publications

• Hanke, M. C., Horni, P. and Schmidli, F. H. (2025) ‘Nachhaltigkeit im Leitbild : (un-)genutztes Potenzial der Museen’, KM - das Magazin von Kulturmanagement Network, 2025(185), pp. 99–105. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-35194.
• Fuchs, S. et al. (2024) Das Resilienz-Playbook : Finanzstrategien für Städte und Gemeinden in unsicheren Zeiten. Winterthur: ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-31864.
• Grafl, A. et al. (2020) Stocktaking of public sector accounting and reporting environment in PULSAR beneficiary countries. World Bank Group. Available at: https://cfrr.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/2020-11/pulsar_stock_pages_0.pdf.
• Horni, P., Fuchs, S. and Gourfinkel, D. (2020) Strengthening fixed asset management through public sector accounting. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-22267.
• Schwaller, A. et al. (2019) Benchmarking guide : integrating public sector accounting and government finance statistics: addressing the differences between international public sector accounting standards, government finance statistics, & the European system of accounts. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group. doi: 10.21256/zhaw-3195.
• Horni, P., Yerly, N. and Trinkler, G. (2018) ‘Co-creating value between PFM institutions: an integrated approach towards financial sustainability’, in XXII IRSPM Annual Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland, 11-13 April 2018. Available at: https://irspm2018.exordo.com/files/papers/735/final_draft/Co-creating_value_between_PFM_institutions.pdf.
• Fuchs, S., Horni, P. and Brüesch, C. (2018) ‘Financial resilience of hybrid organizations : the case of OECD central banks’, in Congress of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences, Tunis, Tunisia, 25-29 June 2018.
• Alaverdyan, K. et al. (2018) Good practice template to public sector accounting reform roadmap. Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group. Available at: https://www.zhaw.ch/storage/shared/upload/Good_Practice_Template_PSA_Reform_Roadmap.pdf.
• Brüesch, C. et al. (2017) ‘Management of opportunities in public administration and reporting on risks towards stakeholders’, in 21st Annual International Research Society on Public Management IRSPM Conference, Budapest, 19-21 April 2017, pp. 1–16.
• Githae, P. et al. (2017) County annual capacity & performance assessment (ACPA) : synthesis report. Nairobi: Matengo Githae & Associates.
• Bergmann, A., Fuchs, S. and Horni, P. (2017) ‘Die Finanzkraft von Zentralbanken im internationalen Vergleich’, Ökonomenstimme. Available at: https://oekonomenstimme.org/articles/1156.
• Fuchs, S. et al. (2016) ‘The star-trek economics of central banks and the supportiveness of financial strength : empirical evidence from OECD central banks’, in 20th Annual International Research Society on Public Management IRSPM Conference, Hong Kong, 13-15 April 2016. Available at: http://programme.exordo.com/irspm2016/delegates/presentation/92/.

Oral conference contributions and abstracts

• Horni, P. (2023) ‘No end without clear means and ends : explaining ten years of non-success in the development of European public sector accounting standards’, in Brown Bag Seminar, University of Konstanz, Germany, 7 July 2023.
• Schuler, C., Fuchs, S. and Horni, P. (2019) ‘A comparative analysis of the public sector accounting environment in the Western Balkan and Black Sea region’, in IIAS Congress 2019, Singapore, 18-21 June 2019.
• Horni, P. and Bergmann, A. (2018) ‘Accuracy or rule of thumb? : taking stock of current value estimation practices for GFS reporting purpose’, in EGPA PSG XII Spring Workshop, Rostock, Germany, 3-4 May 2018.
• Fuchs, S. et al. (2016) ‘The star-trek economics of central banks and the supportiveness of financial strength : empirical evidence from OECD countries’, in EGPA PSG XII Spring Workshop, Modena, Italy, 5-6 May 2016.

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