Offshore finance: The socio-economics of a global system.
To be published in Socio-Economic Review.
A planned special issue of Socio-Economic Review aims to explore the past, present, and future of offshore finance.
Offshore finance is a central feature of the world economic system, acting as a repository for at least $12 trillion in private wealth—equivalent to 12 percent of global GDP—and serving as a conduit for billions each year in asset flows for corporations and individuals. With the rise of financialization, the offshore system has played a growing role in the global political economy, linking pivotal events such as the 2008 financial crisis and the rise of wealth inequality, to the coordinated funding of far-right political movements and the escape from sanctions by Russian oligarchs after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
While leaks of offshore data—such as the Panama, Paradise and Pandora Papers from 2016 to 2021—have pulled back the curtain on some of these activities, offshore finance remains poorly understood by scholars, policy-makers, and the public. This is by intent, since offshore finance sells secrecy: the key ingredient, as Simmel wrote, in making and maintaining wealth for nobles and criminals alike. While we know that corporations’ use of offshore finance facilitates political corruption, distorts markets, and contributes to the degradation of the national environment, research on the offshore activities of ultra-wealthy individuals and families remains underdeveloped. What little we know is fragmented across disciplines such as sociology, political science, economics, anthropology, law, geography, and history.
With this special issue, we seek to integrate these fragments and advance socio-economics by building a coherent foundation for future research on this important global phenomenon. We invite perspectives from across the social sciences and humanities on the use of offshore finance by individuals. It is essential that papers engage explicitly with the journal’s core themes and build bridges across disciplinary boundaries. Papers must be empirical, but all methods—qualitative, quantitative or mixed—are welcome.
Special issue editors
- Brooke Harrington, Dartmouth College, (Brooke.Harrington@dartmouth.edu)
- Kimberly Kay Hoang, University of Chicago, (kayhoang@uchicago.edu)
- Vanessa Ogle, Yale University, (vanessa.ogle@yale.edu)
The deadline for full paper submission is 15 May 2025. The full call for papers is available here.