The mutually reinforcing link between tax haven use and global inequality and injustice

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to build on recent work by Love (2024) on how profit-shifting by multinational enterprises (MNEs) and tax competition leads to inequality and global injustice. Design/methodology/approach This paper outlines how different disciplines have analyzed the use of tax haven by MNEs. The authors discuss how these insights can lead to policy recommendations for global inequality and injustice from various complementary perspectives. Findings The authors identify three interesting issues: (1) how other disciplines have examined tax havens and inequality/injustice and what insights International Business (IB) could draw from these perspectives; (2) the potential policy roles of the OECD versus the UN in addressing the challenges posed by profit-shifting and tax competition; and (3) the benefits of integrating a philosophical approach to global justice into the IB literature, providing a more normative framework for understanding the implications of MNE activities. Originality/value This paper contributes to the increasing importance and ongoing debate regarding the MNEs influence on global inequality and injustice. It demonstrates how philosophical and ethical perspectives can complement and enrich existing IB perspectives in addressing the grand challenge of inequality across countries and the role that MNEs play via their tax haven strategies. The authors further suggest that cross-disciplinary approaches and methods are necessary to demystify the secrecy of tax havens and offer policy recommendations on how to alleviate global inequality and injustice.

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Critical Perspectives on International Business

• Publication date

  2025-03-12

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1108/cpoib-12-2024-0157
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Rediscovering the multinational enterprise: the rise and fall of ‘corporate escape’ studies

  2024cited by this paper
• Profit shifting and tax competition policy: a global justice perspective

  2024cited by this paper
• On the resilience of ESG firms during the COVID-19 crisis: evidence across countries and asset classes

  2024cited by this paper
• Dimensions of Global Justice in Taxing Multinationals

  2024cited by this paper
• International business under sanctions

  2023cited by this paper
• Empirical business research on modern slavery in supply chains: A systematic review

  2023cited by this paper
• The impact of global city location intensity on MNE performance: Leveraging learning and connectivity

  2023cited by this paper
• Taming wicked problems through international business policy: recommendations for addressing modern slavery

  2023cited by this paper
• Corporate social responsibility in the global value chain: A bargaining perspective

  2023cited by this paper
• The real effect of mandatory CSR disclosure: Evidence of corporate tax avoidance

  2022cited by this paper
• Corporate social irresponsibility and consumer punishment: A systematic review and research agenda

  2022cited by this paper
• Corporate ESG reporting quantity, quality and performance: Where to now for environmental policy and practice?

  2021cited by this paper
• Implementing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals in international business

  2021cited by this paper
• Is Corporate Tax Aggressiveness a Reputation Threat? Corporate Accountability, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Corporate Tax Behavior

  2020cited by this paper
• Declining Industrial Disruption

  2020cited by this paper
• Articles: The relationship between MNE tax haven use and FDI into developing economies characterized by capital flight

  2020cited by this paper
• International connectedness and local disconnectedness: MNE strategy, city-regions and disruption

  2020cited by this paper
• Going to Haven? Corporate Social Responsibility and Tax Avoidance

  2019cited by this paper
• Multinational enterprises and economic inequality

  2019cited by this paper
• The impact of corporate governance on corporate tax avoidance—A literature review

  2019cited by this paper
• Lobbying and the international fight against tax havens

  2019cited by this paper
• Tax evasion in new disguise? Examining tax havens' international bank deposits

  2019cited by this paper
• Modern slavery and international business scholarship: the governance nexus

  2019cited by this paper
• The Missing Profits of Nations

  2018cited by this paper
• Aggressive Tax Avoidance: A Conundrum for Stakeholders, Governments, and Morality

  2018cited by this paper
• Tax Avoidance as a Sustainability Problem

  2018cited by this paper
• Regional tax evasion and audit enforcement

  2018cited by this paper
• Measuring the Effects of Corporate Tax Cuts

  2018cited by this paper
• Transfer Pricing: Strategies, Practices, and Tax Minimization

  2017cited by this paper
• The Questionable Legitimacy of the OECD/G20 BEPS Project

  2017cited by this paper
• Tax-driven wealth chains: A multiple case study of tax avoidance in the finnish mining sector

  2017cited by this paper
• Tax-Related Corporate Political Activity Research: A Literature Review

  2017cited by this paper
• Tax haven networks and the role of the Big 4 accountancy firms

  2017cited by this paper
• Towards a renaissance in international business research? Big questions, grand challenges, and the future of IB scholarship

  2017cited by this paper
• Regional strategic assets and the location strategies of emerging countries’ multinationals in Europe†

  2016cited by this paper
• THE EFFECT OF PROFIT SHIFTING ON THE CORPORATE TAX BASE IN THE UNITED STATES AND BEYOND

  2016cited by this paper
• The Social Responsibility of International Business: From Ethics and the Environment to CSR and Sustainable Development

  2016cited by this paper
• Responsible Tax as Corporate Social Responsibility

  2015cited by this paper
• Redistribution, Globalisation, and Multi-level Governance

  2014cited by this paper
• The Reputational Costs of Tax Avoidance

  2014cited by this paper
• How Regional Inequality Affects Fiscal Decentralisation: Accounting for the Autonomy of Subcentral Governments

  2014cited by this paper
• Tax Competition and Global Background Justice*

  2014cited by this paper
• WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT CORPORATE TAX COMPETITION?

  2013cited by this paper
• The impact of board of director oversight characteristics on corporate tax aggressiveness: An empirical analysis

  2013cited by this paper
• How low business tax rates attract MNE activity: Municipality-level evidence from Germany

  2012cited by this paper
• The looting continues: tax havens and corruption

  2011cited by this paper
• The Direct Incidence of Corporate Income Tax on Wages

  2010cited by this paper
• The dark side of transfer pricing: Its role in tax avoidance and wealth retentiveness

  2010cited by this paper
• Which countries become tax havens ? ☆

  2009cited by this paper
• Taxes, Transfer Pricing, and The Multinational Enterprise

  2009cited by this paper
• Corporate tax elasticities: a reader's guide to empirical findings

  2008cited by this paper
• Tax Risk Management and Board Responsibility

  2008cited by this paper
• In Praise of Tax Havens: International Tax Planning and Foreign Direct Investment

  2007cited by this paper
• The Three Parties in the Race to the Bottom: Host Governments, Home Governments and Multinational Companies

  2005cited by this paper
• Corporate income tax reforms and international tax competition

  2002cited by this paper
• Globalization and the Environment: Determinants of Firm Self-Regulation in China

  2001cited by this paper
• Do Lax Environmental Regulations Attract Foreign Investment?

  1998cited by this paper
• Fiscal Paradise: Foreign Tax Havens and American Business

  1994cited by this paper
• The Incidence of the Corporation Income Tax

  1962cited by this paper

• No citing papers are available for this paper.