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. (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), 1886–1909. https://doi.org/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), 449–475. https://doi.org/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. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2021.1994579
• Yerly, N., Trinkler, G., & Horni, P. (2017). Rechnungslegungsnormen und Schuldenbremsen in den Schweizer Kantonen : komplementär oder konkurrierend? Expert Focus, 91(8), 491–495.
• Horni, P., Yerly, N., & 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, 104–115. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-4659

Book chapters, peer-reviewed

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

Written conference contributions, peer-reviewed

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

Other publications

• Hanke, M. C., Horni, P., & Schmidli, F. H. (2025). Nachhaltigkeit im Leitbild : (un-)genutztes Potenzial der Museen. KM - das Magazin von Kulturmanagement Network, 2025(185), 99–105. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-35194
• Fuchs, S., Ramsden, A., Horni, P., Augustin, L., & Schwarz, M. (2024). Das Resilienz-Playbook : Finanzstrategien für Städte und Gemeinden in unsicheren Zeiten. ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-31864
• Horni, P., Fuchs, S., & Gourfinkel, D. (2020). Strengthening fixed asset management through public sector accounting. World Bank Group. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-22267
• Grafl, A., Schuler, C., Fuchs, S., Bergmann, A., Horni, P., Warzecha, I., & Boyce, D. (2020). Stocktaking of public sector accounting and reporting environment in PULSAR beneficiary countries. World Bank Group. https://cfrr.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/2020-11/pulsar_stock_pages_0.pdf
• Schwaller, A., Kizilbash, A., Vatyan, A., Bergmann, A., Fuchs, S., & Horni, P. (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. World Bank Group. https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-3195
• Horni, P., Yerly, N., & Trinkler, G. (2018). Co-creating value between PFM institutions: an integrated approach towards financial sustainability. XXII IRSPM Annual Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland, 11-13 April 2018. https://irspm2018.exordo.com/files/papers/735/final_draft/Co-creating_value_between_PFM_institutions.pdf
• Alaverdyan, K., Fuchs, S., Gamkrelidze, D., Halili, K., Horni, P., Kizilbash, A., Mackie, A., Vatyan, A., Veronin, A., & Zoricic, H. (2018). Good practice template to public sector accounting reform roadmap. World Bank Group. https://www.zhaw.ch/storage/shared/upload/Good_Practice_Template_PSA_Reform_Roadmap.pdf
• Fuchs, S., Horni, P., & Brüesch, C. (2018). Financial resilience of hybrid organizations : the case of OECD central banks. Congress of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences, Tunis, Tunisia, 25-29 June 2018.
• Brüesch, C., Fuchs, S., Horni, P., & Yerly, N. (2017). Management of opportunities in public administration and reporting on risks towards stakeholders [Conference paper]. 21st Annual International Research Society on Public Management IRSPM Conference, Budapest, 19-21 April 2017, 1–16.
• Githae, P., Matengo, M., Lang, A., Horni, P., & Frener, A. (2017). County annual capacity & performance assessment (ACPA) : synthesis report. Matengo Githae & Associates.
• Bergmann, A., Fuchs, S., & Horni, P. (2017). Die Finanzkraft von Zentralbanken im internationalen Vergleich. Ökonomenstimme. https://oekonomenstimme.org/articles/1156
• Fuchs, S., Horni, P., Schuler, C., & Bergmann, A. (2016). The star-trek economics of central banks and the supportiveness of financial strength : empirical evidence from OECD central banks. 20th Annual International Research Society on Public Management IRSPM Conference, Hong Kong, 13-15 April 2016. 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. Brown Bag Seminar, University of Konstanz, Germany, 7 July 2023.
• Schuler, C., Fuchs, S., & Horni, P. (2019). A comparative analysis of the public sector accounting environment in the Western Balkan and Black Sea region. IIAS Congress 2019, Singapore, 18-21 June 2019.
• Horni, P., & Bergmann, A. (2018). Accuracy or rule of thumb? : taking stock of current value estimation practices for GFS reporting purpose. EGPA PSG XII Spring Workshop, Rostock, Germany, 3-4 May 2018.
• Fuchs, S., Horni, P., Schuler, C., & Bergmann, A. (2016). The star-trek economics of central banks and the supportiveness of financial strength : empirical evidence from OECD countries. EGPA PSG XII Spring Workshop, Modena, Italy, 5-6 May 2016.

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