PACCFINTAX is based in the Accounting and Finance section of Cardiff Business School, with group members deriving from across the School and beyond. The group is jointly coordinated by Dr Dennis De Widt and Professor Carla Edgley.
Research
Research of the group covers the broad range of activities aimed at ensuring the efficient, effective, sustainable, and accountable use and collection of public funds. Research group members employ a diverse array of research methods to produce high quality scholarly and policy relevant research, including the frequent use of interdisciplinary and international comparative analysis.
Supporting the Public Value philosophy of Cardiff Business School, the research group aims to contribute to the development of policies and practices that improve the governance, administration and collection of public funds, ultimately enhancing the quality and accessibility of public services.
Key research areas of PACCFINTAX include:
- Public sector accounting and public sector audit
- Public sector finances and public sector financial management
- Tax policymaking and tax administration
Meet the team
Co-directors
Academic staff
Postgraduate students
Associated staff
- Dr Davide Avino, Liverpool University
- Dr Richard Baylis, Swansea University
- Professor Lynne Oats, University of Exeter
Public sector accounting and public sector audit publications
- Baylis, R. M. et al. 2024. Debate: The lack of public sector accounting education within universities and what is next. Public Money & Management 44 (5), pp.347-348. (10.1080/09540962.2024.2333613)
- Andrews, R. and Ferry, L. 2023. Political control and audit fees: An empirical analysis of local SOEs in England. Public Money and Management 43 (5), pp.438-446. (10.1080/09540962.2021.1996005)
- Baylis, R. and De Widt, D. 2023. Debate: The future of public sector audit training. Public Money & Management 43 (3), pp.217-218. (10.1080/09540962.2022.2109881)
- De Widt, D. , Llewelyn, I. and Thorogood, T. 2022. Liberalising audit markets for local government: The five forces at work in England and the Netherlands. Financial Accountability and Management 38 (3), pp.394-425. (10.1111/faam.12302)
- Benamraoui, A. , Alwardat, Y. A. and Karbhari, Y. 2022. Examining the UK public sector VFM audit expectations gap: Evidence from the informed. International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation 18 (1), pp.61-88. (10.1504/IJAAPE.2022.123307)
- De Widt, D. , Llewelyn, I. and Thorogood, T. 2018. Review of lessons learned by Public Sector Audit Appointments Limited in its role as an Appointing Person 2016–18. Technical Report.
- Karbhari, Y. et al. 2018. Assessing audit committee effectiveness of a government statutory body: Evidence from the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia. International Journal of Economics and Management 12 (S2), pp.401-411.
- Norton, S. D. and Smith, L. M. 2008. Contrast and foundation of the public oversight roles of the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the U.K. National Audit Office. Public Administration Review 68 (5), pp.921-931. (10.1111/j.1540-6210.2008.00932.x)
Public sector finances and public sector financial management publications
- Alonso, J. M. and Andrews, R. 2024. Can city deals improve economic performance? Evidence from England. Urban Affairs Review 60 (3), pp.835-863. (10.1177/10780874231191702)
- Sun, S. and Andrews, R. 2023. Intra-provincial fiscal decentralisation, relative wealth and healthcare efficiency: empirical evidence from China. Public Administration 101 (3), pp.973-992. (10.1111/padm.12832)
- De Widt, D. , Thorogood, T. and Llewelyn, I. 2021. Monitoring local government financial sustainability: a Dutch-English comparison. In: Geissler, R. , Hammerschmid, G. and Raffer, C. eds. Local Public Finance: An International Comparative Regulatory Perspective. Springer, Cham. , pp.131-152. (10.1007/978-3-030-67466-3_8)
- De Widt, D. 2021. The impact of demographic trends on local government financial reserves: evidence from England. Local Government Studies 47 (3), pp.405-428. (10.1080/03003930.2021.1877665)
- Sun, S. and Andrews, R. 2020. The determinants of fiscal transparency in Chinese city-level governments. Local Government Studies 46 , pp.44-67. (10.1080/03003930.2019.1608828)
- De Widt, D. and Panagiotopoulos, P. 2018. Informal networking in the public sector: Mapping local government debates in a period of austerity. Government Information Quarterly 35 (3), pp.375-388. (10.1016/j.giq.2018.05.004)
- De Widt, D. 2017. The sustainability of local government finances in England, Germany and the Netherlands: the impact of intergovernmental regulatory regimes. In: Bolivar, M. ed. Financial Sustainability in Public Administrations. Palgrave Macmillan. , pp.193-225. (10.1007/978-3-319-57962-7_8)
- De Widt, D. 2016. Top-down and bottom-up: Institutional effects on debt and grants at the English and German local level. Public Administration 94 (3), pp.664-684. (10.1111/padm.12251)
- Andrews, R. W. 2015. Vertical consolidation and financial sustainability: evidence from English local government. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 33 (6), pp.1518-1545. (10.1177/0263774X15614179)
Tax policymaking and tax administration publications
- De Widt, D. and Oats, L. 2024. Imagining cooperative tax regulation: Common origins, divergent paths. Critical Perspectives On Accounting 99 102446. (10.1016/j.cpa.2022.102446)
- De Widt, D. and Mulligan, E. 2024. The accountability of collaborative innovations in tax administration: A Dutch-US comparison. International Public Management Journal (10.1080/10967494.2024.2315183)
- Holland, K. , Lindop, S. and Abdul Wahab, N. S. 2022. How do managers and shareholders respond to taxation? An analysis of the introduction of the UK real estate investment trust legislation. Abacus 58 (2), pp.334-364. (10.1111/abac.12239)
- De Widt, D. 2022. Cooperative compliance: a multi-stakeholder and sustainable approach to taxation, by Jeffrey Owens and Jonathan Leigh Pemberton (eds) [Book Review]. British Tax Review (2), pp.241-244.
- Edgley, C. R. and Holland, K. M. 2021. 'Unknown unknowns' and the tax knowledge gap: power and the materiality of discretionary tax disclosures. Critical Perspectives On Accounting 81 102227. (10.1016/j.cpa.2020.102227)
- De Widt, D. and Oats, L. 2020. Co-operative compliance: The U.K. evolutionary model. In: Hein, R. and Russo, R. eds. Co-operative Compliance and the OECD’s International Compliance Assurance Programme. Vol. 68, EUCOTAX Series on European Taxation Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer Law International. , pp.213-230.
- Rijt, P. v. d. , Hasseldine, J. and Holland, K. 2019. Sharing corporate tax knowledge with external advisers. Accounting and Business Research 49 (4), pp.454-473. (10.1080/00014788.2018.1526058)
- De Widt, D. and Oats, L. 2017. Risk assessment in a cooperative compliance context: a Dutch-UK comparison. British Tax Review 2017 (2), pp.230-248.
- Holland, K. , Lindop, S. and Zainudin, F. 2016. Tax avoidance: a threat to corporate legitimacy? An examination of companies’ financial and CSR reports. British Tax Review 3 , pp.310-338.
- Evans, C. , Carlon, S. and Holland, K. 2016. Tax knowledge in large corporations: insights and analysis. Project Report.Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA)
- Wahab, N. S. A. and Holland, K. 2015. The persistence of book-tax differences. British Accounting Review 47 (4), pp.339-350. (10.1016/j.bar.2014.06.002)
Events
Special Issue workshop linked to journal Financial Accountability and Management
PACCFINTAX is organising the special issue workshop titled Changing modes of coordination: Accounting implications of vertical public service reforms.
The aim of the special issue workshop is to gather different scholarly perspectives on key questions related to changing modes of coordination between public sector organisations, and their implications for public sector accounting, audit, budgeting, and financial management practices and processes. We are very interested in articles that focus on advancing our theoretical and empirical understanding of these crucial, yet under-researched themes.
The workshop will be held at Cardiff Business School on 7 and 8 July 2025, and authors wishing to present at the workshop should submit a paper proposal (maximum two pages in length) to Dennis De Widt (dewidtd@cardiff.ac.uk) by 31 January 2025.
The submission deadline for receipt of completed papers for the workshop is 30th May 2025. More details on the special issue workshop can be found online.
Past events
Tax Research Network (TRN) Conference 2024
Cardiff Business School hosted the 2024 TRN Annual Conference on 9 – 11 September 2024. The conference was organised by PACCFINTAX Co-Directors Professor Carla Edgley and Dr Dennis De Widt, in collaboration with Ms Terry Filer (Swansea University) and Mrs. Nicky Thomas (University of Exeter). Delegates were welcomed to the conference by Professor Rachel Ashworth, Dean and Head of Cardiff Business School.
Keynote speakers included Nina E. Olson, Executive Director, Center for Taxpayer Rights, and former head of the United States’ Office of the Taxpayer Advocate, and Erich Kirchler, professor of Economic Psychology at the University of Vienna. They were joined by 64 presenters during the two research days of the conference programme. The presentations covered a wide spectrum of tax research carried out across the globe, with, beyond the UK and other European countries, researchers present from Australia, China, South Africa, Singapore, and the US, amongst others.
The Tuesday afternoon comprised a panel discussion focusing on ‘Tax policymaking and tax administration reform: The role of taxpayer behaviour’. Speakers included Erich Kirchler; Ellen Milner (Chartered Institution of Taxation); Felix Hathaway (Office for Budgetary Responsibility); Lakshmi Narain (Azets) and Ritchie Tout (Azets).
The Education Day comprised of eight presentations and a keynote address by Lucy Chalmers-Morris, Deloitte Data & Innovation, examining the question “AI - what does it mean for the tax profession and professionals?” The day and conference concluded with a panel discussion on “Re-imagining assessment” with Lucy Chalmers-Morris, Vicky Purtill (Chartered Institution of Taxation), Ritchie Tout (Azets) and Matt Townsend (Cardiff University).
Professor Andrew Lymer, Aston University, Chair, Tax Research Network closed the conference.
Sponsors of TRN 2024 were Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) Charitable Trusts, Chartered Institution of Taxation (CIOT), The Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT), Azets and Tax Notes.
Next steps
Research that matters
Our research makes a difference to people’s lives as we work across disciplines to tackle major challenges facing society, the economy and our environment.
Postgraduate research
Our research degrees give the opportunity to investigate a specific topic in depth among field-leading researchers.
Our research impact
Our research case studies highlight some of the areas where we deliver positive research impact.