Publications

@article{Ajdacic2019,
title = {The Wealth Defence Industry: A large-scale study on accountancy firms as profit shifting facilitators},
author = {L D Ajdacic and E M Heemskerk and J Garcia-Bernardo},
url = {http://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/8t5za},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-12-04},
journal = {Working paper},
abstract = {Corporations increasingly engage in innovative ‘tax planning strategies’ by shifting profits between jurisdictions. In response, states try to curtail such profit shifting activities while at the same time attempting to retain and attract multinational corporations. We aim to open up this dichotomy between states and corporations and argue that a wealth defence industry of professional service firms plays a crucial role as intermediaries. We investigate the subsidiary structure of 27,000 MNCs and show that clients of the Big Four accounting firms show systematically higher levels of aggressive tax planning strategies than clients of smaller accounting firms. We specify this effect for three distinct strategies and also uncover marked differences across countries. As such we provide empirical evidence for the systematic involvement of auditors as intermediaries in corporate wealth defence.},
keywords = {Globalization, multiplex corporate networks, offshore, offshore financial centres},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{Takes2018,
title = {Multiplex network motifs as building blocks of corporate networks},
author = {F W Takes and W A Kosters and B Witte and E M Heemskerk},
url = {https://appliednetsci.springeropen.com/articles/10.1007/s41109-018-0094-z},
doi = {10.1007/s41109-018-0094-z},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-12-14},
journal = {Applied Network Science, Springer},
volume = {3},
number = {39},
pages = {1-22},
abstract = {In corporate networks, firms are connected through links of corporate ownership and shared directors, connecting the control over major economic actors in our economies in meaningful and consequential ways. Most research thus far focused on the connectedness of firms as a result of one particular link type, analyzing node-specific metrics or global network-based methods to gain insights in the modelled corporate system.

In this paper, we aim to understand multiplex corporate networks with multiple types of connections, specifically investigating the network’s essential building blocks: multiplex network motifs. Motifs, which are small subgraph patterns occurring at significantly higher frequencies than in similar random networks, have demonstrated their usefulness in understanding the structure of many types of real-world networks. However, detecting motifs in multiplex networks is nontrivial for two reasons. First of all, there are no out-of-the-box subgraph enumeration algorithms for multiplex networks. Second, existing null models to test network motif significance, are unable to incorporate the interlayer dependencies in the multiplex network. We solve these two issues by introducing a layer encoding algorithm that incorporates the multiplex aspect in the subgraph enumeration phase. In addition, we propose a null model that is able to preserve the interlayer connectedness, while taking into account that one of the link types is actually the result of a projection of an underlying bipartite network.

The experimental section considers the corporate network of Germany, in which tens of thousands of firms are connected through several hundred thousand links. We demonstrate how incorporating the multiplex aspect in motif detection is able to reveal new insights that could not be obtained by studying only one type of relationship. In a general sense, the motifs reflect known corporate governance practices related to the monitoring of investments and the concentration of ownership. A substantial fraction of the discovered motifs is typical for an industrialized country such as Germany, whereas others seem specific for certain economic sectors. Interestingly, we find that motifs involving financial firms are over-represented amongst the larger and more complex motifs. This demonstrates the prominent role of the financial sector in Germany’s largely industry-oriented corporate network.},
keywords = {corporate ownership, multiplex corporate networks, network motifs},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}