The role of tax havens and offshore financial centres in shaping corporate geographies: an industry sector perspective

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of tax havens and offshore financial centres (THOFC) in the global economy. Network analysis of 24 industry sectors suggests that THOFC feature prominently in knowledge-intensive activities such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and semiconductors, and are least significant in industrial activities such as automobiles and consumer durables, and place-bound activities such as real estate and retailing. Contrasting with the notion that most THOFC are 'rogue' offshore territories, the most significant are either continental nation-states or British territorial dependencies. It is concluded that global firm networks often mimic the geographies of taxation more than actual production or consumption activities.

Spatial Differentiation of Variegated Capitalisms: A Comparative Analysis of Russian and Australian Oil and Gas Corporate City Networks

“…The connectivity patterns that emerged from our static analysis of intrafirm relationships provide empirical evidence of the processes of globalization, financialization, and the rise of state capitalism. This has also been found in previous studies on the energy sector to explain the positions of global cities (Goerzen, Asmussen, and Nielsen 2013), energy hubs (Toly et al 2012;, national capitals (Toly et al 2012;Breul 2019), and THOFCs (Sigler et al 2019;Verbeek and Mah 2020) at the core of global oil and gas firm networks.…”

Integration and Isolation in the Global Petrochemical Industry: A Multiscalar Corporate Network Analysis

“…Singapore, for example, has been shown to be a gateway city in upstream oil and gas global production networks, and has a long history as a refinery and transport and logistics hub for the petrochemical industry (Breul and Diez 2018). Finally, in the territorial configuration of the global petrochemical industry, we identify the reorientation from supply-or demand-side advantages to purely financial considerations, leading to global firm networks mimicking geographies of taxation (Sigler et al 2020). No less than five out of ten top meeting points are often listed as THOFCs: Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Amsterdam, and Wilmington (Philadelphia).…”

“…Finally, THOFCs have also recently been identified as a specific kind of nodes in global firm networks. Sigler et al (2020) showed that the role of place in decisionmaking has partly been reoriented from supply-or demand-side advantages to purely financial considerations, with global firm networks mimicking geographies of taxation.…”

“…From the first field, we incorporate ideas on the resilience of the Atlantic ruling class (van der Pijl 1984;Heemskerk, Fennema, and Carroll 2016), the isolation of Asian and emerging economies' corporate elites (Carroll 2009), the role of policy-planning institutes as integrative nodes for corporate elites to exert influence in political domains (Carroll and Sapinski 2010), and the opening up of social corporate network research toward other forms of interlocks such as joint ventures (de Graaff 2011). From world city network analysis, we borrow ideas on multiple globalizations (Sigler and Martinus 2016), gateway cities (Scholvin, Breul, and Diez 2019) and the importance of tax havens and offshore financial centers (THOFCs) in company networks (Sigler et al 2020).…”

The brokerage role of small states and territories in global corporate networks

“…Consultant territories sit outside of the community of the territories that they mediate for (who are in the same community). It might also be akin to 'round-tripping' in which territories from one community disguise investments back into the community by first routing payments to locations with more attractive tax regimes or regulatory benefits (Fung et al, 2011;Sigler et al, 2019).…”