Dr Rodney Brown is an empirical archival researcher of issues at the intersection of taxation and financial accounting.  Rodney’s current research interests focus on corporate tax avoidance and the extent to which increased transparency of firms’ tax arrangements has real effects.

Rodney joined UNSW in July 2018 after spending 5 years in the UK completing a PhD in Accounting at the London School of Economics (LSE).  His PhD thesis primarily examined the impact of country-by-country tax reporting on the tax aggressiveness of European Union banks.

In addition to his current teaching at UNSW, Rodney has taught postgraduate and undergraduate courses at the LSE, Kings College London and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

Prior to academic life, Rodney gained extensive industry experience over 20 years working as a Chartered Accountant and financial planner in public practice (including PwC and EY), commercial organisations and management consulting.

Rodney retains strong industry links via his professional affiliations including Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ) (Member since 1999), the Financial Services Institute of Australasia (FINSIA) (Fellow since 2009), and The Tax Institute (TTI) (Fellow since 2020).

Rodney has been awarded several competitive research grants from the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ) and CPA Australia and he has served on university- and industry-level committees including the UNSW Business School’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee (2019-2022) and Deputy Chair of The Tax Institute’s Education Quality Assurance Board (2020-2023).  

Rodney is passionate about research and teaching that bridges the divide between academic research and practice.

Rodney is a reviewer for leading academic journals including the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting (ABDC A*-ranked), Australian Tax Forum (ABDC A*-ranked), Australian Tax Review (ABDC A-ranked), eJournal of Tax Research (ABDC A-ranked), World Tax Journal (ABDC B-ranked), and Accounting Perspectives (ABDC B-ranked).