Advances in Studying the Offshore World

Day 1: Thursday, 26 March

Time: 9.00am – 9.30am - Arrival & Coffee

Welcome Time: 9.30am 

Speakers: 

• Stéphanie Balme, Professor Director, CERI Sciences Po / CNRS 
• Andrea Binder, Freigeist Research Group Leader, Freie Universität Berlin / Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science 
• Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, Professor of Political Science, Sciences Po-CERI / CNRS 

Session 1 - Elites in the Offshore World

Time: 9.45am – 11.15am

Chair: Andrea Binder

Discussant: Bruno Cousin (Sciences Po- CEE)

Papers:

• Kristin Surak (London School of Economics): "Gateways, Funnels, and Stackers: How People Hide Property Ownership through Offshore Structures"
• Kimberly Hoang (University of Chicago): "The Architecture of Global Capital: Elites, States, and the New Geography of Wealth"
• Nikhil Kalyanpur (London School of Economics): "American Economic Coercion and Elite Re-globalization"

Session 2 - History of the Offshore World

Time: 11.30am – 1.00pm 

Chair: Thorsten Benner (Global Public Policy Institute)

Discussant: Ronan Palan (City University)

Papers:

• Benoît Majerus (University of Luxembourg): "Infrastructures of Tax Chains: A History of Shell Companies in the 20th Century"
• Catherine Schenk (University of Oxford): "Correspondent Banking Networks of Offshore Centres"
• Matteo Calabrese (Freie Universität Berlin): "Fortress of Capital: Fiscal Engineering and Holding Companies in the Principality of Monaco, 1934–1945"

Lunch Time: 1.00pm – 2.30pm

Session 3: The (International) Politics of Offshore Finance

Time: 2.30pm – 4.00pm 

Chair: Anastasia Nesveitalova (UNCTAD)

Discussant: Charlotte Rommerskirchen (University of Edinburgh)

Papers:

• Lukas Hakelberg (Leuphana University Lüneburg): "Coalition Formation and the Sovereignty of Tax Havens: A Comparative Historical Analysis of the Bahamas and Bermuda"
• Jason Sharman (University of Cambridge): “Why Does Offshore Exist in an Age of Tax Transparency?”
• Bernhard Reinsberg (University of Glasgow): “The Unintended Side Effect of the Global Financial Safety Net: Elite Capital Flight”
   

Day 2: Friday, 27 March

Session 4: Approaches to understanding and explaining the offshore world

Time: 9.30am – 11.00am

Chair: Laurence Louër (Sciences Po-CERI/CNRS)

Discussant: Jason Sharman (University of Cambridge)

Papers: 

• Sébastien Guéx (University of Lausanne): “How to Write the History of the Swiss Tax Haven? Some Methodological and Historiographical Reflections”
• Andrea Binder (Freie Universität Berlin): “Analysing Obscurity - An Approach to Studying Offshore Finance”
• Dariusz Wójcik (National University of Singapore / University of Oxford): “Making Offshore Finance Visible: A Financial Geography Perspective” 
• Brooke Harrington (Dartmouth College): "Studying Secrecy - State of the Art"

Coffee - break: 11.00am

Session 5: Public and Private Power in the Age of Offshore Finance

Time: 11.30am – 1.00pm

Chair: Lukas Hakelberg

Discussant: Kimberly Hoang (University of Chicago)

Papers:

• Gustav Kalm (SciencesPo Paris): "Jurisdictional Arbitrage, uneven Development, Differentiated Physical Territory: How Law Structures International Inequality"
• Ronen Palan (City University of London): "Corporate Arbitrage and the Fragmented MNE: How Multinational Firms Govern Across Jurisdictions"
• Ricardo Soares de Oliveira (SciencesPo - CERI/CNRS): "Offshore Finance as Statecraft - Chinese SOEs and Africa-bound FDI"
• Charlotte Rommerskirchen (University of Edinburgh): “Hedge Funds in the Gate - Offshore Finance and Government Bonds”