2025, PLOS One, doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0326228; with Herbert Chang & Daniel Rockmore.
This paper examines variations in how the ultra-rich use the offshore financial system, based on users’ country of origin. We find that political conditions in elites’ countries of origin shapes whether they simply diversify their assets across multiple OFCs, or take risky and reckless steps, like putting assets in blacklisted jurisdictions or holding their wealth in bearer bonds or shares–the blank checks of the offshore world. Among our surprisingly results, we find that elites from well-governed countries like Denmark and Austria use the offshore system in patterns similar to elites from autocratic and corrupt states, such as Iran and Vietnam. Overall, we find three key patterns of offshore use–diversification, identity concealment and combination strategies–each of which has implications for public policy, as well as for scholarly models of inequality, elites, and financial crime.