2025 |
Eelke M Heemskerk Yuliia Kazmina, Emilia van der Kooij Can social capital remedy structural inequality? Economic mobility in a longitudinal population-scale social network Journal Article In: arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.05275, 2025. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{nokey,The promise of equal opportunity is a cornerstone of modern societies, yet upward economic mobility remains out of reach for many. Using a decade of population-scale social network data from the Netherlands, covering over a billion family, school, workplace, and neighborhood ties, we examine how structural inequality and social capital jointly shape economic trajectories. Parental background is a strong early predictor of economic outcomes, but its influence fades over time. In contrast, bridging social capital is what positively predicts long-term mobility, particularly for economically disadvantaged groups. Reducing the dimensionality of an individual's network composition, we identify two key dimensions: exposure to affluent contacts and socioeconomic diversity of one's network. These are sufficient to capture the core aspects of social capital that matter for economic mobility. Overall, our findings demonstrate that while inherited advantage shapes the starting point of economic trajectory, social capital can powerfully reshape it, especially for the poor. |
Eelke M Heemskerk Hanjo D Boekhout, Niccolò Pisani Freshness, Persistence and Success of Scientific Teams Journal Article In: arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.12255, 2025. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{nokey,Team science dominates scientific knowledge production, but what makes academic teams successful? Using temporal data on 25.2 million publications and 31.8 million authors, we propose a novel network-driven approach to identify and study the success of persistent teams. Challenging the idea that persistence alone drives success, we find that team freshness - new collaborations built on prior experience - is key to success. High impact research tends to emerge early in a team's lifespan. Analyzing complex team overlap, we find that teams open to new collaborative ties consistently produce better science. Specifically, team re-combinations that introduce new freshness impulses sustain success, while persistence impulses from experienced teams are linked to earlier impact. Together, freshness and persistence shape team success across collaboration stages. |
Eszter Bokányi Márton Menyhért, Rense Corten Connectivity and community structure of online and register-based social networks Journal Article In: EPJ Data Science, 2025. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{nokey,The dominance of online social media data as a source for large-scale social network studies has recently been challenged by networks constructed from state-curated register data. In this paper focused on the cross-comparison of the network structures, we investigate the similarities and differences of the Dutch online social network (OSN) Hyves and a register-based social network (RSN) of the Netherlands. First and foremost, we find that node metrics and the connectivity of the two population-scale networks are similar, with more long-distance ties captured by the OSN, and with the OSN ties proving to be predictive of RSN ties. These results hold when correcting for population size and geographical distance, notwithstanding that these two factors appear to be the main drivers of connectivity. Second, we show using multiple algorithms that the community structure of the two networks is similar and that neither follows strict administrative geographical delineations (e.g., provinces). Instead, communities appear to either center around large metropolitan areas or, outside of the country’s most urbanized area, comprise large blocks of interdependent municipalities. Beyond population and distance-related patterns, communities also highlight the persistence of deeply rooted sociocultural communities such as the Dutch Bible belt. The findings presented in this work aid in interpreting results from future studies in which register-based social networks are used to obtain insights into the social network structure of an entire population. |
2024 |
Hanjo D Boekhout Niccolò Pisani, Eelke M Heemskerk China's Rise as Global Scientific Powerhouse: A Trajectory of International Collaboration and Specialization in High-Impact Research Journal Article In: Available at SSRN 5014244, 2024. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{nokey,The recent and rapid ascent of China into today’s scientific powerhouse is increasingly debated in circles of economic politics and policy making. Yet, we still know relatively little about China’s appetite for opening its knowledge production to international collaborations. Nor do we understand how the choices that Chinese scientists make in working in international teams (or not) relate to its recent scientific success. In this study, leveraging a unique, well-curated database of over 25 million scientific publications from 2008 until 2020, we investigate (1) how collaboration of Chinese-based researchers with scientists from other countries has materialized; (2) how competition in producing high-impact research has evolved for China, especially vis-à-vis the United States, in the global production of science; and (3) how specialization in well-defined fields has characterized China’s ascent in science. The findings of our analysis show that China’s rise as a leading player in global science has critically built on opening its knowledge production to international collaboration. This has been paired with a remarkable focus on high-impact research. Recently, China has entirely closed the gap with the US in terms of contribution to the global top 1% high-impact scientific production, specializing in four key fields—engineering/electrical/electronic, materials science, physics, and chemistry. Our study sheds new light on the changing geographical landscape of science. Inconsistent with the dominant pro-isolation narrative, we register a strategically precise opening of scientific production by China, which has resulted into higher levels of dependence of reputable scientific countries on China. China’s scientific global powerhouse is not just successful but also structurally well positioned in the international network of knowledge production to further continue its rise at the relative expense of, among others, the United States and Western Europe. |
Eelke M Heemskerk Yuliia Kazmina, Eszter Bokanyi Socio-economic segregation in a population-scale social network Journal Article In: Social Networks, vol. 78, pp. 279-291, 2024. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{nokey,We propose a social network-aware approach to study socio-economic segregation. The key question that we address is whether patterns of segregation are more pronounced in social networks than in the common spatial neighborhood-focused manifestations of segregation. We, therefore, conduct a population-scale social network analysis to study socio-economic segregation at a comprehensive and highly granular social network level. For this, we utilize social network data from Statistics Netherlands on 17.2 million registered residents of the Netherlands that are connected through around 1.3 billion ties distributed over five distinct tie types. We take income assortativity as a measure of socio-economic segregation, compare a social network and spatial neighborhood approach, and find that the social network structure exhibits two times as much segregation. As such, this work complements the spatial perspective on segregation in both literature and policymaking. While at a widely used unit of spatial aggregation (e.g., the geographical neighborhood), patterns of socio-economic segregation may appear relatively minimal, they may in fact persist in the underlying social network structure. Furthermore, we discover higher social network segregation in larger cities, shedding a different light on the common view of cities as hubs for diverse socio-economic mixing. A population-scale social network perspective hence offers a way to uncover hitherto “hidden” segregation that extends beyond spatial neighborhoods and infiltrates multiple aspects of human life. |
Eelke Heemskerk Nicolás Soler, Yuliia Kazmina 2024. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @unpublished{nokey,The notion of “social opportunity structure”(SOS) is central in research on segregation and intergroup relations, but notoriously difficult to measure because it requires capturing potential rather than actual contacts across multiple social contexts at once. We propose a new comprehensive approach to measure the notion of SOS for a whole country. We leverage population-scale social network data from administrative registers to measure the size and social composition of five social contexts: families, households, neighborhoods, workplaces, and schools. We link this SOS at the individual level to survey-sourced personal network data on intergroup social ties. We showcase the potential of this population-scale measurement approach through data linkage by studying how the probability that Dutch natives have a social tie with an immigrant varies depending on the presence of immigrants and immigrant descendants in their SOS. We reflect on the advantages and limitations of our approach by documenting the data linkage process in detail and discussing the longitudinal and network nature of the data. |
E Heemskerk N Soler, Y Kazmina Contacts in contexts: a population-scale social network approach to the study of close intergroup social ties Online 2024. BibTeX | Tags: @online{nokey, |
2023 |
Eelke M Heemskerk Eszter Bokányi, Frank W Takes The anatomy of a population-scale social network Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 13, iss. 1, pp. 9209, 2023. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{nokey,Large-scale human social network structure is typically inferred from digital trace samples of online social media platforms or mobile communication data. Instead, here we investigate the social network structure of a complete population, where people are connected by high-quality links sourced from administrative registers of family, household, work, school, and next-door neighbors. We examine this multilayer social opportunity structure through three common concepts in network analysis: degree, closure, and distance. Findings present how particular network layers contribute to presumably universal scale-free and small-world properties of networks. Furthermore, we suggest a novel measure of excess closure and apply this in a life-course perspective to show how the social opportunity structure of individuals varies along age, socio-economic status, and education level. |
2022 |
Eelke Heemskerk Jan Fichtner, Johannes Petry The new gatekeepers of financial claims: States, passive markets, and the growing power of index providers Book Chapter In: Capital claims: Power and global finance , pp. 22, Routledge, 2022. @inbook{nokey,Since the financial crisis there has been a massive shift from actively managed funds to passive funds that merely replicate financial indexes. Instead of active investors influencing states through their investment decisions, in this new economic reality the locus of agency is shifting from investors towards index providers as they decide which companies and countries are included in benchmark indexes. We argue that the major index providers (MSCI, S&P Dow Jones and FTSE Russell) exercise growing private authority as they steer capital via their indexes. Index providers have become crucial intermediaries in the relationship between states and investors. Through producing widely used indexes, index providers essentially provide a crucial infrastructure that enables the creation and trading of passively allocated financial claims. Through the infrastructural power they derive from this gatekeeper position, index providers are able to ‘standardise’ the issuers of capital claims and the countries in which these issuers reside through determining the criteria that corporations and states, especially emerging markets, have to fulfil to qualify for index membership. This chapter investigates the relationship between states and index providers and the latter’s influence on issues of domestic financial regulation, investor access and international capital flows. |
Jeroen Veldman Eelke M Heemskerk, Jan Fichtner Mandate Ownership: power concentration and second-order agency conflict in the age of passive asset management. Journal Article In: SSRN 4015828, 2022. @article{nokey,The rise of passive investing is leading to a new reality of horizontal ownership in combination with a reconcentration of corporate control, notably at the Big Three passive asset managers BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard. We introduce the concept of mandate ownership and point to a process of double decoupling in which the Big Three retain the elements of shareholding most relevant to corporate control, while leaving the entitlement owners with the risks. We subsequently show how the market for corporate influence is the relevant arena for the exercise of power in corporate governance. This results in a second-order agency conflict between unaccountable asset managers who exercise considerable power over corporations and dispersed entitlement owners with no power of oversight of control. The limited recognition of mandate ownership in theory and in regulation creates an opportunity for rent-seeking activities and the accumulation of power over corporations by mandate owners. |
Stefano Elia Filip De Beule, Javier Garcia-Bernardo Proximity at a distance: The relationship between foreign subsidiary co-location and MNC headquarters board interlock formation Journal Article In: International Business Review, vol. 31, iss. 4, pp. 101971, 2022. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{nokey,Corporations seek various relationships, such as board interlocks, with other firms to reduce resource dependencies. The consistent theoretical expectation and empirical finding that physical proximity is an important driver for board interlock formation is seemingly at odds with the emerging and growing literature on transnational board interlock ties. We argue that the effect of proximity on multinational corporation (MNC) board interlock formation can also be attributed to the firms’ internationalization strategy, namely, when they have co-located subsidiaries in foreign markets. We call this “proximity at a distance”. We test our assumptions on a dataset covering almost 43,000 board interlocks among MNC headquarters and their 12 million subsidiary co-location pairs. We confirm that proximity among headquarters increases the odds of interlocking but also find robust evidence that co-located subsidiaries also increase firms’ propensity to interlock, particularly for transnational board interlocks. Our results help provide an explanation for the “paradox of distance” by showing that the interlock between two distant MNCs may be driven by proximity to their foreign subsidiaries. As such, we illustrate how MNCs’ resource-dependent strategic responses can occur at the headquarters level to address uncertainties experienced at the subsidiary level. |
Rena Bakhshi Dafne E van Kuppevelt, Eelke M Heemskerk Community membership consistency applied to corporate board interlock networks Journal Article In: Journal of Computational Social Science, vol. 5, iss. 1, pp. 841-860, 2022. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{nokey,Community detection is a well-established method for studying the meso-scale structure of social networks. Applying a community detection algorithm results in a division of a network into communities that is often used to inspect and reason about community membership of specific nodes. This micro-level interpretation step of community structure is a crucial step in typical social science research. However, the methodological caveat in this step is that virtually all modern community detection methods are non-deterministic and based on randomization and approximated results. This needs to be explicitly taken into consideration when reasoning about community membership of individual nodes. To do so, we propose a metric of community membership consistency, that provides node-level insights in how reliable the placement of that node into a community really is. In addition, it enables us to distinguish the community core members of a community. The usefulness of the proposed metrics is demonstrated on corporate board interlock networks, in which weighted links represent shared senior level directors between firms. Results suggest that the community structure of global business groups is centered around persistent communities consisting of core countries tied by geographical and cultural proximity. In addition, we identify fringe countries that appear to associate with a number of different global business communities. |
Eelke M Heemskerk Hanjo D Boekhout, Frank W Takes Evolution of the World Stage of Global Science from a Scientific City Network Perspective Conference International Conference on Complex Networks and Their Applications , Springer International Publishing, 2022. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @conference{nokey,This paper investigates the stability and evolution of the world stage of global science at the city level by analyzing changes in co-authorship network centrality rankings over time. Driven by the problem that there exists no consensus in the literature on how the spatial unit “city” should be defined, we first propose a new approach to delineate so-called scientific cities. On a high-quality Web of Science dataset of 21.5 million publications over the period 2008–2020, we study changes in centrality rankings of subsequent 3-year time-slices of scientific city co-authorship networks at various levels of impact. We find that, over the years, the world stage of global science has become more stable. Additionally, by means of a comparison with degree respecting rewired networks we reveal how new co-authorships between authors from previously unconnected cities more often connect ‘close’ cities in the network periphery. |
Frank W Takes Diliara Valeeva, Eelke M Heemskerk Beaten paths towards the transnational corporate elite Journal Article In: International Sociology, vol. 37, iss. 1, pp. 97-123, 2022. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{nokey,The transnationalization of economic activities has fundamentally altered the world. One of the consequences that has intrigued scholars is the formation of a transnational corporate elite. While the literature tends to focus on the topology of the transnational board interlock network, little is known about its driving mechanisms. This article asks the question: what are the trajectories that corporate elites follow in driving the expansion of this network? To answer this, the authors employ a novel approach that models the transnationalization of elites using their board appointment sequences. The findings show that there are six transnationalization trajectories corporate elites follow to expand the network. The authors argue that while the transnational elite network appears as a global social structure, its generating mechanisms are regionally organized. This corroborates earlier findings on the fragmentation of the global network of corporate control, but also provides insights into how this network was shaped over time. |
2021 |
Cees Diks Gert Buiten, Albert Faber Netwerkanalyse biedt nieuwe inzichten voor clustergericht energiebeleid Bachelor Thesis 2021. @bachelorthesis{nokey,Synergievoordelen binnen industriële clusters zijn een belangrijk uitgangspunt in het Nederlandse klimaatbeleid. Tegelijkertijd zijn deze clusters in de praktijk soms moeilijk waarneembaar. Een netwerkanalyse maakt een clustergericht industriebeleid met focus op verduurzaming mogelijk. |
Rena Bakhshi Dafne E. van Kuppevelt, Eelke M. Heemskerk Community membership consistency applied to corporate board interlock networks Journal Article In: Journal of Computational Social Science, 2021. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{nokey,Community detection is a well established method for studying the meso scale structure of social networks. Applying a community detection algorithm results in a division of a network into communities that is often used to inspect and reason about community membership of specific nodes. This micro level interpretation step of community structure is a crucial step in typical social science research. However, the methodological caveat in this step is that virtually all modern community detection methods are non-deterministic and based on randomization and approximated results. This needs to be explicitly taken into consideration when reasoning about community membership of individual nodes. To do so, we propose a metric of community membership consistency, that provides node-level insights in how reliable the placement of that node into a community really is. In addition, it enables us to distinguish the community core members of a community. The usefulness of the proposed metrics is demonstrated on corporate board interlock networks, in which weighted links represent shared senior level directors between firms. Results suggest that the community structure of global business groups is centered around persistent communities consisting of core countries tied by geographical and cultural proximity. In addition, we identify fringe countries that appear to associate with a number of different global business communities. |
M Jouke Huijzer, Eelke M Heemskerk Delineating the corporate elite: Inquiring the boundaries and composition of interlocking directorate networks Journal Article In: Global networks, vol. 21, iss. 4, pp. 791-820, 2021. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{nokey,Corporate elite studies have for long investigated networks of interlocking directorates to test and corroborate key theoretical expectations regarding the cohesive organization of such an elite and their ability and willingness to act on behalf of general business interests. These studies typically collect data on a list of 50, 100, 200 or 500 corporations ranked by economic size, sometimes stratified in sectors. The sampling approach often follows previous studies in order to increase comparability. These relatively arbitrary sampling practices are problematic because they impact the empirical results and our therefore the conclusions drawn from it. Using a sample of 3251 Canada-based corporations, we establish that indeed different sampling criteria – that is sample size, proportion of financial firms, inclusion of state-owned enterprises and so on – significantly impacts network properties of corporate elite networks. We establish rather disturbing differences, especially for smaller sample sizes (<100). Subsequently, we develop alternative demarcation criteria of the corporate elite based on a k-core decomposition. We conclude by emphasizing that the sampling decisions in interlocking directorate studies should much more be carefully be thought through in future research on the topic, both in corporate elite studies and beyond. |
Eelke M Heemskerk Lena Ajdacic, Javier Garcia-Bernardo The wealth defence industry: A large-scale study on accountancy firms as profit shifting facilitators Journal Article In: New Political Economy, vol. 26, iss. 4, pp. 690-706, 2021. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{nokey,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 facilitators. We investigate the subsidiary structure of 27,000 MNCs and show that clients of the Big Four accountancy firms show systematically higher levels of aggressive tax planning strategies than clients of smaller accountancy 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 facilitators in corporate wealth defence. |
Frank W Takes Carolina ES Mattsson, Eelke M Heemskerk Functional Structure in Production Networks Bachelor Thesis 2021. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @bachelorthesis{nokey,Production networks are integral to economic dynamics, yet dis-aggregated network data on inter-firm trade is rarely collected and often proprietary. Here we situate company-level production networks within a wider space of networks that are different in nature, but similar in local connectivity structure. Through this lens, we study a regional and a national network of inferred trade relationships reconstructed from Dutch national economic statistics and re-interpret prior empirical findings. We find that company-level production networks have so-called functional structure, as previously identified in protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks. Functional networks are distinctive in their over-representation of closed squares, which we quantify using an existing measure called spectral bipartivity. Shared local connectivity structure lets us ferry insights between domains. PPI networks are shaped by complementarity, rather than homophily, and we use multi-layer directed configuration models to show that this principle explains the emergence of functional structure in production networks. Companies are especially similar to their close competitors, not to their trading partners. Our findings have practical implications for the analysis of production networks and give us precise terms for the local structural features that may be key to understanding their routine function, failure, and growth. |
Jan Fichtner Milan Babic, Eelke Heemskerk Corporate networks Book Chapter In: The Oxford Handbook of International Political Economy, pp. 1-15, Oxford Academic, 2021. @inbook{nokey,In 2012, the New York Times proclaimed the age of “big data”—the harnessing and analysis of large swaths of previously unavailable information about the social world (Lohr 2012). This proclamation was not only limited to the usual suspects running their business model on large amounts of user data. A “new breed of political scientists”(Lohr 2012) was expected to thrive in this new age of data abundance. The major field of application of this abundance was quickly identified as network science (Przulj and Malod-Dognin 2016). This was an exciting promise for the relatively young discipline of International Political Economy (IPE) for the 2010s. Previous theoretical and qualitative insights postulated that corporate network fora like elite communities were driving political economy phenomena from global trade governance to European integration (see, eg, van Apeldoorn 2002). With the availability of large-scale, fine-grained corporate network data and the application of cuttingedge methods, these insights could be empirically bolstered and leveraged on a global, cross-temporal scale. With its strong rooting in grand theories of international (economic) relations, IPE as a discipline presented a fruitful “testing ground” for the application of datadriven network analysis. Reflecting this hope in 2009, Robert Keohane named network analysis a “much more sophisticated” way of analyzing complex interdependence in IPE, and expressed hope that network analysis (among others) would retain the “I” in IPE for the future of the discipline (Keohane 2009, 39). |
Jan Fichtner Johannes Petry, Eelke Heemskerk Steering capital: The growing private authority of index providers in the age of passive asset management Journal Article In: Review of international political economy, vol. 28, iss. 1, pp. 152-176, 2021. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{nokey,Since the global financial crisis, there is a massive shift of assets towards index funds. Rather than picking stocks, index funds replicate stock indices such as the S&P 500. But where do these indices actually come from? This paper analyzes the politico-economic role of index providers, a small group of highly profitable firms including MSCI, S&P DJI, and FTSE Russell, and develops a research agenda from an IPE perspective. We argue that these index providers have become actors that exercise growing private authority as they steer investments through the indices they create and maintain. While technical expertise is a precondition, their brand is the primary source of index provider authority, which is entrenched through network externalities. Rather than a purely technical exercise, constructing indices is inherently political. Which companies or countries are included into an index or excluded (i.e. receive … |
2020 |
Jan Fichtner, Eelke M Heemskerk The new permanent universal owners: Index funds, patient capital, and the distinction between feeble and forceful stewardship Journal Article In: Economy and society, vol. 49, iss. 4, pp. 493-515, 2020. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{nokey,Fundamental change is happening in global finance – the shift from active management to index funds. This money mass-migration into index funds has far-reaching socio-economic consequences, as it has the potential to transform the nature of shareholder capitalism. We call BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street the ‘New Permanent Universal Owners’ that are invested indefinitely in thousands of firms. We provide novel findings on the combined ownership of the Big Three in European countries and Japan and investigate how this signals a shift away from the shareholder capitalism that has been dominant for the past three decades. We discuss the future role(s) of the New Permanent Universal Owners in corporate governance including whether they foster patient capital and introduce the distinction between feeble and forceful stewardship. |
Valeeva, D; Heemskerk, E M; Takes, F W The duality of firms and directors in board interlock networks: A relational event modeling approach Journal Article In: Social Networks, vol. 62, pp. 68-79, 2020. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: corporate networks, elites, interlocking directorates, relational event modeling @article{Valeeva2020,The long tradition of scholarly work on corporate interlocks has left us with competing theoretical frameworks on the causes of interlock networks. Board interlocks are studied either as means to overcome the resource dependence of corporations or as a group cohesion mechanism of business elites. This contrast is due to an empirical divide of the literature where either the firms or the individuals are considered as decision-making bodies. In systematically ignoring the agency of the other group of actors, these literatures suffer from both theoretical and empirical biases in understanding the drivers of new interlocks. In this paper, we employ a relational event modeling technique that allows us to overcome this problem. The analysis of board appointments in Denmark demonstrates how in fact both personal and corporate considerations simultaneously drive the evolution of the corporate networks. The study of the duality of actors is essential for understanding the causes and consequences of corporate networks across time and space. |
Fichtner, J; Heemskerk, E M; Petry, J The Conversation 2020. Links | BibTeX | Tags: capital flows, climate crisis, index funds, index providers, passive asset management, private authority, stock market indices @online{Fichtner2020, |
Fichtner, J; Heemskerk, E M; Petry, J Index funds might sound boring. But who decides which countries and companies to include? Online The Washington Post 2020. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: capital flows, index funds, index providers, passive asset management, private authority, stock market indices @online{FichtnerHeemskerkPetry2020,Index providers wield a lot of power in global finance — and that raises big political questions. |
Pisani, Niccolo; Garcia-Bernardo, Javier; Heemskerk, Eelke Does it pay to be a multinational? A large-sample, cross-national replication assessing the multinationality--performance relationship Journal Article In: Strategic Management Journal, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 152–172, 2020. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{pisani2020does,Research Summary Does it pay to be a multinational? Despite decades of empirical research, we still do not know. We undertake a large‐sample, cross‐national replication of Lu and Beamish (2004) and Berry and Kaul's (2016) works to examine whether the multinationality–performance relationship is S‐shaped in a 2009–2016 panel of 889,865 firm‐year observations. Using a two‐stage least squares fixed‐effects model that accounts for endogeneity on a subsample of 32,835 multinationals from 64 countries, we find no evidence of an S‐shaped relationship; nor do we see it in any of the single‐country contexts. Our results show no evidence of any within‐firm effect of multinationality on performance, highlighting the need for more contextually‐grounded research focused on explaining between‐firm effects to advance our theoretical and empirical understanding of the multinationality‐performance relationship. Managerial Summary We replicate two studies that examined the relationship between a firm's multinationality and its performance. Lu and Beamish (2004) found evidence of an S‐shaped relationship—with performance first decreasing, then increasing, then decreasing again as firms expanded abroad—in a sample of Japanese firms; Berry and Kaul (2016) found no evidence of an S‐shaped pattern in a sample of U.S. multinationals. We test for the same relationship using data from nearly 250,000 firms based in over 100 countries from 2009 to 2016 and find no evidence of an S‐shaped pattern or of any effect of multinationality. Our study thus adds substantial evidence to the one shown by Berry and Kaul (2016), emphasizing the need to focus on how contextual differences influence the multinationality–performance relationship. |
van Kuppevelt, Dafne E; Bakhshi, Rena; Heemskerk, Eelke M; Takes, Frank W Community membership consistency in corporate board interlock networks Journal Article In: arXiv, no. 2008.00745, 2020. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{van2020community,Community detection is a well established method for studying the meso scale structure of social networks. Applying a community detection algorithm results in a division of a network into communities that is often used to inspect and reason about community membership of specific nodes. This micro level interpretation step of community structure is a crucial step in typical social science research. However, the methodological caveat in this step is that virtually all modern community detection methods are non-deterministic and based on randomization and approximated results. This needs to be explicitly taken into consideration when reasoning about community membership of individual nodes. To do so, we propose a metric of emph{community membership consistency}, that provides node-level insights in how reliable the placement of that node into a community really is. In addition, it enables us to distinguish the emph{community core} members of a community. The usefulness the proposed metrics is demonstrated on corporate board interlock networks, in which weighted links represent shared senior level directors between firms. Results suggest that the community structure of global business groups is centered around persistent communities consisting of core countries tied by geographical and cultural proximity. In addition, we identify fringe countries that appear to associate with a number of different global business communities. |
Fichtner, Jan; Heemskerk, Eelke M The New Permanent Universal Owners: Index funds, patient capital, and the distinction between feeble and forceful stewardship Journal Article In: Economy and Society, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 493–515, 2020. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{fichtner2020new,Fundamental change is happening in global finance – the shift from active management to index funds. This money mass-migration into index funds has far-reaching socio-economic consequences, as it has the potential to transform the nature of shareholder capitalism. We call BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street the ‘New Permanent Universal Owners’ that are invested indefinitely in thousands of firms. We provide novel findings on the combined ownership of the Big Three in European countries and Japan and investigate how this signals a shift away from the shareholder capitalism that has been dominant for the past three decades. We discuss the future role(s) of the New Permanent Universal Owners in corporate governance including whether they foster patient capital and introduce the distinction between feeble and forceful stewardship. |
2019 |
Petry, J; Fichtner, J; Heemskerk, E M Steering capital: the growing private authority of index providers in the age of passive asset management Journal Article In: Review of International Political Economy, 2019. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: capital flows, index funds, index providers, passive asset management, private authority, stock market indices @article{PetryFichtnerHeemskerk2019b,Since the global financial crisis, there is a massive shift of assets towards index funds. Rather than picking stocks, index funds replicate stock indices such as the S&P 500. But where do these indices actually come from? This paper analyzes the politico-economic role of index providers, a small group of highly profitable firms including MSCI, S&P DJI, and FTSE Russell, and develops a research agenda from an IPE perspective. We argue that these index providers have become actors that exercise growing private authority as they steer investments through the indices they create and maintain. While technical expertise is a precondition, their brand is the primary source of index provider authority, which is entrenched through network externalities. Rather than a purely technical exercise, constructing indices is inherently political. Which companies or countries are included into an index or excluded (i.e. receive investment in- or outflows) is based on criteria defined by index providers, thereby setting standards for corporate governance and investor access. Hence, in this new age of passive asset management index providers are becoming gatekeepers that exert de facto regulatory power and thus may have important effects on corporate governance and the economic policies of countries. |
Ajdacic, L D; Heemskerk, E M; Garcia-Bernardo, J The Wealth Defence Industry: A large-scale study on accountancy firms as profit shifting facilitators Journal Article In: Working paper, 2019. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Globalization, multiplex corporate networks, offshore, offshore financial centres @article{Ajdacic2019,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. |
Babic, M; Garcia-Bernardo, J; Heemskerk, E M The rise of transnational state capital: state-led foreign investment in the 21st century Journal Article In: Review of International Political Economy, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 433-475, 2019. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: corporate power, foreign direct investment, Globalization, Ownership, state capitalism @article{Babic2019db,Cross-border state-led investment is a recently rising, but understudied phenomenon of the global political economy. Existing research employs an anecdotal and case-oriented perspective that does not engage in a systemic, large-scale analysis of this rise of transnational state investment and its consequences for the transformation of state power in 21st century capitalism. We take a first step at filling this gap and offer two original contributions: Conceptually, we operationalize transnational foreign state-led investment on the basis of weighted ownership ties. These state capital ties are created by states as investors in corporations around the world. Empirically, we demonstrate our approach by setting up and analyzing the largest dataset on transnational state capital up to date. We show which different outward strategies states as owners employ and classify states according to their relative positions within the global network of transnational state capital. Our results illustrate a crucial aspect of the ongoing transformation of state power and sovereignty within globalization and we demonstrate how a careful and data-driven approach is able to identify different pathways and dimensions of this transformation. |
2018 |
Takes, F W; Kosters, W A; Witte, B; Heemskerk, E M Multiplex network motifs as building blocks of corporate networks Journal Article In: Applied Network Science, Springer, vol. 3, no. 39, pp. 1-22, 2018. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: corporate ownership, multiplex corporate networks, network motifs @article{Takes2018,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. |
Fichtner, J; Heemskerk, E M The New Permanent Universal Owners: Index Funds, (Im)patient Capital, and the Claim of Long-termism Journal Article In: SSRN, pp. 1-30, 2018. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: asset managers, corporate governance, corporate ownership, index funds, shorttermism, varieties of capitalism @article{Fichter2019,Fundamental change is happening in asset management – the shift from actively managed funds to index funds. This money mass migration into index funds has far-reaching consequences, because it leads to a concentration of corporate ownership in the hands of the ‘Big Three’ asset managers. We call BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street the ‘New Permanent Universal Owners’ as they are invested indefinitely in thousands of member firms of stock indexes. We provide novel findings on the combined ownership of the Big Three in 17 major stock indexes from nine countries. Furthermore, we shed light on the impact of index funds on the dichotomy between ‘patient’ and ‘impatient’ capital. The Big Three have proclaimed themselves champions of long-termism. We analyze their voting behavior in five countries concerning two proxies for corporate short-termism: share buybacks, and mergers and acquisitions. So far, they have not unambiguously acted as champions of long-termism. |
van Kuppevelt, D E; Takes, F W; Heemskerk, E M Understanding evolving communities in transnational board interlock networks Proceedings Article In: Proceedings of the 14th IEEE International Conference on e-Science, pp. 312-313, IEEE, 2018. Links | BibTeX | Tags: communities, networks, transnational board interlocks @inproceedings{vanKuppevelt2018, |
Heemskerk, E M; Leaver, A If this is capitalism, where are the price signals?: The glacial effects of passive investment Online SPERI, (Ed.): 2018. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: financial flows, index funds, passive investing @online{HeemskerkLeaver2018,In the 10 years since the 2008 crash, the ‘passive-aggressive’ tendencies of large index funds have reshaped how modern capitalism operates |
Babic, M; Heemskerk, E M; Fichtner, J Who is more powerful – states or corporations? Online The Conversation 2018. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Globalization @online{statesorcorps,Who holds the power in international politics? Most people would probably say it’s the largest states in the global system. The current landscape of international relations seems to affirm this intuition: new Russian geopolitics, “America First” and Chinese state-led global expansion, among others, seem to put state power back in charge after decades of globalisation. Yet multinationals like Apple and Starbucks still wield phenomenal power. They oversee huge supply chains, sell products all over the world, and help mould international politics to their interests. In some respects, multinationals have governments at their beck and call – witness their consistent success at dodging tax payments. So when it comes to international politics, are states really calling the shots? |
Fichtner, J Meet the New Owners of Corporate America Online Cambridge Core Blog 2018. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Ownership @online{meetthenew,A seismic shift is going on in finance still largely unnoticed by the public. People and institutions are increasingly investing their money into index tracker funds instead of actively managed mutual funds. Index funds simply buy shares of all firms that are part of an index. Therefore, they can charge significantly lower fees to their investors — there is no well-paid fund manager that tries to beat the market. Besides low fees, they offer similar returns to active funds, as the latter have not been able to consistently beat major stock indexes, such as the S&P500. The scale of this money migration is astounding. Between 2008 and 2016, about US$1,200 billion left actively managed funds, while approximately US$1,400 billion moved into index funds. |
Heemskerk, E M; Young, K; Takes, F W; Cronin, B; Garcia-Bernardo, J; Popov, V; Winecoff, W K; Henriksen, L F; Laurin-Lamonthe, A The Promise and Perils of Using Big Data in the Study of Corporate Networks: Problems, Diagnostics and Fixes Journal Article In: Global Networks, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 3-32, 2018. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{BigData,Network data on connections between corporate actors and entities – for instance through co-ownership ties or elite social networks – are increasingly available to researchers interested in probing the many important questions related to the study of modern capitalism. Given the analytical challenges associated with the nature of the subject matter, variable data quality and other problems associated with currently available data on this scale, we discuss the promise and perils of using big corporate network data (BCND). We propose a standard procedure for helping researchers deal with BCND problems. While acknowledging that different research questions require different approaches to data quality, we offer a schematic platform that researchers can follow to make informed and intelligent decisions about BCND issues and address these through a specific work-flow procedure. For each step in this procedure, we provide a set of best practices for how to identify, resolve and minimize the BCND problems that arise. |
Fennema, M; Heemskerk, E M When Theory Meets Methods: The Naissance of Computer Assisted Corporate Interlock Research Journal Article In: Global Networks, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 81-104, 2018. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{Naissance,In this article, we study the emergence of computer aided network analysis as an example of ‘Mertonian’ multiple discovery. Computer assisted quantitative network analysis emerged around 1970 and small groups of researchers in different universities, who were independent of each other and looking for the right concepts and computer programs to implement graph theory in social analysis, first applied it to corporate interlock networks. We show how mathematical graph theory provided a toolbox for systematic network analysis and that simultaneously in the Netherlands and the United States this toolbox found an application in the study of corporate power. A historical narrative covers the three main centres in which large-scale corporate network analysis emerged – Amsterdam, California and Stony Brook. For each centre, we provide a sketch of the people involved, the tools they used, and the motivations that brought them to this topic. Our analysis makes clear that one cannot understand the emergence of computer aided network analysis without considering the personal and often political motivations of those who engaged in the first board interlock studies. Insurgent students of political science and sociology pushed for a research agenda on corporate power and found support from scholars who were keen to develop innovative network analysis methods. Hence, corporate network analysis became a legitimate field of research. |
Takes, Frank W; Kosters, Walter A; Witte, Boyd; Heemskerk, Eelke M Multiplex network motifs as building blocks of corporate networks Journal Article In: Applied network science, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1–22, 2018. BibTeX | Tags: @article{takes2018multiplex, |
Heemskerk, Eelke M Network analysis and the Amsterdam School Journal Article In: Transnational Capital and Class Fractions: The Amsterdam School Perspective Reconsidered, pp. 197, 2018. BibTeX | Tags: @article{heemskerk2018network, |
2017 |
Garcia-Bernardo, J; Fichtner, J; Takes, F W; Heemskerk, E M Sinks and Conduits: Identifying Offshore Financial Centers by using Big Data Journal Article In: IFC Review, vol. Economic Report, no. Winter 2017/ 18, pp. 61-63, 2017. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{sectorresearch,Th is article is based on J. Garcia-Bernardo, J. Fichtner, F.W. Takes and E.M. Heemskerk, ‘Uncovering Off shore Financial Centers: Conduits and Sinks in the Global Corporate Ownership Network’, Scientifi c Reports 7, article 6246, 2017. Th e research illustrates that ‘off shore’ jurisdictions are much more complex than the traditional notion of an island state secreting away cash. Th e University of Amsterdam researchers found that the off shore industry is in fact a complex network of fi nancial conduits, which involve many of the traditional ‘onshore’ centres. |
Babic, M; Fichtner, J; Heemskerk, E M States versus Corporations: Rethinking the Power of Business in International Politics Journal Article In: The International Spectator: Italian Journal of International Affairs, 2017. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{Statesb,Over 25 years ago, Susan Strange urged IR scholars to include multinational corporations in their analysis. Within IR and IPE discussions, this was either mostly ignored or reflected in an empirically and methodologically unsatisfactory way. We reiterate Strange’s call by sketching a fine-grained theoretical and empirical approach that includes both states and corporations as juxtaposed actors that interact in transnational networks inherent to the contemporary international political economy. This realistic, juxtaposed, actor- and relations-centred perspective on state and corporate power in the global system is empirically illustrated by the example of the transnationalisation of state ownership. |
Garcia-Bernardo, J; Fichtner, J; Takes, F W; Heemskerk, E M Uncovering Offshore Financial Centers: Conduits and Sinks in the Global Corporate Ownership Network Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 7, no. Article 6246, 2017. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{Offshore2017,Multinational corporations use highly complex structures of parents and subsidiaries to organize their operations and ownership. O shore Financial Centers (OFCs) facilitate these structures through low taxation and lenient regulation, but are increasingly under scrutiny, for instance for enabling tax avoidance. Therefore, the identi cation of OFC jurisdictions has become a politicized and contested issue. We introduce a novel data-driven approach for identifying OFCs based on the global corporate ownership network, in which over 98 million rms (nodes) are connected through 71 million ownership relations. This granular rm-level network data uniquely allows identifying both sink-OFCs and conduit- OFCs. Sink-OFCs attract and retain foreign capital while conduit-OFCs are attractive intermediate destinations in the routing of international investments and enable the transfer of capital without taxation. We identify 24 sink-OFCs. In addition, a small set of ve countries – the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Singapore and Switzerland – canalize the majority of corporate o shore investment as conduit-OFCs. Each conduit jurisdiction is specialized in a geographical area and there is signi cant specialization based on industrial sectors. Against the idea of OFCs as exotic small islands that cannot be regulated, we show that many sink and conduit-OFCs are highly developed countries. |
Garcia-Bernardo, J; Heemskerk, E M; Takes, F W; Fichtner, J These five countries are conduits for the world's biggest tax havens Online The Conversation 2017. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @online{ConversationTax,First came the Panama Papers, then the BahamasLeaks. Journalists continue to shed light on and raise a public outcry over the offshore financial centres that corporations use to reduce their tax bill – something that is still being challenged in court. A new study has now uncovered all the world’s corporate tax havens and, for the first time, revealed the intermediary countries that companies use to funnel their money into these places. Published on July 24 in the academic journal Scientific Reports, the paper Uncovering Offshore Financial Centers: Conduits and Sinks in the Global Corporate Ownership Network shows that offshore finance is not the exclusive business of exotic, far-flung places such as the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. The Netherlands and the United Kingdom also play a crucial – although a heretofore obscure – role in the tax-avoidance game, acting as conduits for corporate profits as they make their way to tax havens. |
Heemskerk, E M Langetermijnoriëntatie en de opkomst van passieve investeerders Journal Article In: Economisch Statistische Berichten (ESB), vol. 102, no. 4751, pp. 320-321, 2017. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{ESBb,Passieve investeerders zijn de afgelopen jaren flinke gegroeid. BlackRock, Vanguard en State Street hebben nu belangen in de meeste beursgenoteerde bedrijven. Welke rol vervullen deze aandeelhouders en wat betekent dit voor het management? |
Heemskerk, E M Ligt het Rijnland nu in de VS? Lange termijn oriëntatie en passieve investeringsfondsen Journal Article In: Goed Bestuur & Toezicht, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 14-16, 2017. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{Rijnland,Bedreigd door vijandige overnamepogingen roepen bestuurders van Nederlandse bedrijven en politici om beschermingsconstructies. Hun pleidooi voor de lange termijn lijkt wat hypocriet. De ongekende opkomst van Amerikaanse indexbeleggers verklaart wellicht meer. Enorme fondsen als Blackrock zijn op de lange termijn gericht en onderhouden veel contact met ‘hun’ ondernemingen. |
Shenkar, C; Heemskerk, E M; Fichtner, J The New Mandate Owners: Passive Asset Managers and the Decoupling of Corporate Ownership Journal Article In: Competition Policy International Antitrust Chronicle, vol. Spring 2017 Volume 1, no. 3, pp. 51-57, 2017. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: corporate ownership, passive asset management @article{AntitrustChronicle,A major shift toward passively managed index funds in recent years has led to the re-concentration of corporate ownership in the hands of just three large asset management firms, the Big Three: BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street. We propose that this trend has re-structured ownership in capital markets. Adopting a contractual view to the corporate share, we re-define share holding and suggest that the New Mandate Owners in fact hold the essence of corporate power, as their aggregated positions capture the core element of the franchise of corporate voting. |
Fichtner, J; Heemskerk, E M; Garcia-Bernardo, J These three firms own corporate America Online The Conversation 2017. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @online{ConversationFirms,A fundamental change is underway in stock market investing, and the spin-off effects are poised to dramatically impact corporate America. In the past, individuals and large institutions mostly invested in actively managed mutual funds, such as Fidelity, in which fund managers pick stocks with the aim of beating the market. But since the financial crisis of 2008, investors have shifted to index funds, which replicate established stock indices, such as the S&P 500. The magnitude of the change is astounding: from 2007 to 2016, actively managed funds have recorded outflows of roughly US$1,200 billion, while index funds had inflows of over US$1,400 billion. In the first quarter of 2017, index funds brought in more than US$200 billion – the highest quarterly value on record. |
Fichtner, J; Heemskerk, E M; Garcia-Bernardo, J Hidden Power of the Big Three? Passive Index Funds, Re-Concentration of Corporate Ownership, and New Financial Risk Journal Article In: Business and Politics, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 298-326, 2017. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: @article{BigThree,Since 2008, a massive shift has occurred from active toward passive investment strategies. The passive index fund industry is dominated by BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, which we call the “Big Three.” We compre- hensively map the ownership of the Big Three in the United States and find that together they constitute the largest shareholder in 88 percent of the S&P 500 firms. In contrast to active funds, the Big Three hold relatively illiquid and perma- nent ownership positions. This has led to opposing views on incentives and pos- sibilities to actively exert shareholder power. Some argue passive investors have little shareholder power because they cannot “exit,” while others point out this gives them stronger incentives to actively influence corporations. Through an anal- ysis of proxy vote records we find that the Big Three do utilize coordinated voting strategies and hence follow a centralized corporate governance strategy. However, they generally vote with management, except at director (re-)elections. Moreover, the Big Three may exert “hidden power” through two channels: First, via private engagements with management of invested companies; and second, because company executives could be prone to internalizing the objectives of the Big Three. We discuss how this development entails new forms of financial risk. |
2025 |
Can social capital remedy structural inequality? Economic mobility in a longitudinal population-scale social network Journal Article In: arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.05275, 2025. |
Freshness, Persistence and Success of Scientific Teams Journal Article In: arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.12255, 2025. |
Connectivity and community structure of online and register-based social networks Journal Article In: EPJ Data Science, 2025. |
2024 |
China's Rise as Global Scientific Powerhouse: A Trajectory of International Collaboration and Specialization in High-Impact Research Journal Article In: Available at SSRN 5014244, 2024. |
Socio-economic segregation in a population-scale social network Journal Article In: Social Networks, vol. 78, pp. 279-291, 2024. |
2024. |
Contacts in contexts: a population-scale social network approach to the study of close intergroup social ties Online 2024. |
2023 |
The anatomy of a population-scale social network Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 13, iss. 1, pp. 9209, 2023. |
2022 |
The new gatekeepers of financial claims: States, passive markets, and the growing power of index providers Book Chapter In: Capital claims: Power and global finance , pp. 22, Routledge, 2022. |
Mandate Ownership: power concentration and second-order agency conflict in the age of passive asset management. Journal Article In: SSRN 4015828, 2022. |
Proximity at a distance: The relationship between foreign subsidiary co-location and MNC headquarters board interlock formation Journal Article In: International Business Review, vol. 31, iss. 4, pp. 101971, 2022. |
Community membership consistency applied to corporate board interlock networks Journal Article In: Journal of Computational Social Science, vol. 5, iss. 1, pp. 841-860, 2022. |
Evolution of the World Stage of Global Science from a Scientific City Network Perspective Conference International Conference on Complex Networks and Their Applications , Springer International Publishing, 2022. |
Beaten paths towards the transnational corporate elite Journal Article In: International Sociology, vol. 37, iss. 1, pp. 97-123, 2022. |
2021 |
Netwerkanalyse biedt nieuwe inzichten voor clustergericht energiebeleid Bachelor Thesis 2021. |
Community membership consistency applied to corporate board interlock networks Journal Article In: Journal of Computational Social Science, 2021. |
Delineating the corporate elite: Inquiring the boundaries and composition of interlocking directorate networks Journal Article In: Global networks, vol. 21, iss. 4, pp. 791-820, 2021. |
The wealth defence industry: A large-scale study on accountancy firms as profit shifting facilitators Journal Article In: New Political Economy, vol. 26, iss. 4, pp. 690-706, 2021. |
Functional Structure in Production Networks Bachelor Thesis 2021. |
Corporate networks Book Chapter In: The Oxford Handbook of International Political Economy, pp. 1-15, Oxford Academic, 2021. |
Steering capital: The growing private authority of index providers in the age of passive asset management Journal Article In: Review of international political economy, vol. 28, iss. 1, pp. 152-176, 2021. |
2020 |
The new permanent universal owners: Index funds, patient capital, and the distinction between feeble and forceful stewardship Journal Article In: Economy and society, vol. 49, iss. 4, pp. 493-515, 2020. |
The duality of firms and directors in board interlock networks: A relational event modeling approach Journal Article In: Social Networks, vol. 62, pp. 68-79, 2020. |
The Conversation 2020. |
Index funds might sound boring. But who decides which countries and companies to include? Online The Washington Post 2020. |
Does it pay to be a multinational? A large-sample, cross-national replication assessing the multinationality--performance relationship Journal Article In: Strategic Management Journal, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 152–172, 2020. |
Community membership consistency in corporate board interlock networks Journal Article In: arXiv, no. 2008.00745, 2020. |
The New Permanent Universal Owners: Index funds, patient capital, and the distinction between feeble and forceful stewardship Journal Article In: Economy and Society, vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 493–515, 2020. |
2019 |
Steering capital: the growing private authority of index providers in the age of passive asset management Journal Article In: Review of International Political Economy, 2019. |
The Wealth Defence Industry: A large-scale study on accountancy firms as profit shifting facilitators Journal Article In: Working paper, 2019. |
The rise of transnational state capital: state-led foreign investment in the 21st century Journal Article In: Review of International Political Economy, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 433-475, 2019. |
2018 |
Multiplex network motifs as building blocks of corporate networks Journal Article In: Applied Network Science, Springer, vol. 3, no. 39, pp. 1-22, 2018. |
The New Permanent Universal Owners: Index Funds, (Im)patient Capital, and the Claim of Long-termism Journal Article In: SSRN, pp. 1-30, 2018. |
Understanding evolving communities in transnational board interlock networks Proceedings Article In: Proceedings of the 14th IEEE International Conference on e-Science, pp. 312-313, IEEE, 2018. |
If this is capitalism, where are the price signals?: The glacial effects of passive investment Online SPERI, (Ed.): 2018. |
Who is more powerful – states or corporations? Online The Conversation 2018. |
Meet the New Owners of Corporate America Online Cambridge Core Blog 2018. |
The Promise and Perils of Using Big Data in the Study of Corporate Networks: Problems, Diagnostics and Fixes Journal Article In: Global Networks, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 3-32, 2018. |
When Theory Meets Methods: The Naissance of Computer Assisted Corporate Interlock Research Journal Article In: Global Networks, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 81-104, 2018. |
Multiplex network motifs as building blocks of corporate networks Journal Article In: Applied network science, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1–22, 2018. |
Network analysis and the Amsterdam School Journal Article In: Transnational Capital and Class Fractions: The Amsterdam School Perspective Reconsidered, pp. 197, 2018. |
2017 |
Sinks and Conduits: Identifying Offshore Financial Centers by using Big Data Journal Article In: IFC Review, vol. Economic Report, no. Winter 2017/ 18, pp. 61-63, 2017. |
States versus Corporations: Rethinking the Power of Business in International Politics Journal Article In: The International Spectator: Italian Journal of International Affairs, 2017. |
Uncovering Offshore Financial Centers: Conduits and Sinks in the Global Corporate Ownership Network Journal Article In: Scientific Reports, vol. 7, no. Article 6246, 2017. |
These five countries are conduits for the world's biggest tax havens Online The Conversation 2017. |
Langetermijnoriëntatie en de opkomst van passieve investeerders Journal Article In: Economisch Statistische Berichten (ESB), vol. 102, no. 4751, pp. 320-321, 2017. |
Ligt het Rijnland nu in de VS? Lange termijn oriëntatie en passieve investeringsfondsen Journal Article In: Goed Bestuur & Toezicht, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 14-16, 2017. |
The New Mandate Owners: Passive Asset Managers and the Decoupling of Corporate Ownership Journal Article In: Competition Policy International Antitrust Chronicle, vol. Spring 2017 Volume 1, no. 3, pp. 51-57, 2017. |
These three firms own corporate America Online The Conversation 2017. |
Hidden Power of the Big Three? Passive Index Funds, Re-Concentration of Corporate Ownership, and New Financial Risk Journal Article In: Business and Politics, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 298-326, 2017. |