Plenary session
Keynote: Niels Johannesen on 'The challenge of offshore tax havens'

Auditorium: Friday, 8 September 2023, 11:00-12:10 (UTC+2)

Join us Friday, 8 September, when Niels Johannesen, Professor at the Department of Economics at the University of Copenhagen, presents his paper with the working title, 'The challenge of offshore tax havens'. Johannesen will discuss offshore tax havens and the challenges they pose for developing nations.

In this lecture, Johannesen will explore the multifaceted activities that transpire within offshore tax havens, encompassing aspects such as personal tax evasion, money laundering, and corporate tax avoidance. Drawing on his extensive research and expertise, he will shed light on the intricate mechanisms that drive these activities and their far-reaching consequences.

His focus is on the unique challenges faced by developing countries in relation to offshore tax havens. Johannesen will discuss the distinctive hurdles these nations encounter, reflecting on issues such as resource scarcity, governance limitations, and imbalanced power dynamics. Furthermore, he will propose insightful policy solutions tailored specifically to address the concerns of developing economies.

Professor Johannesen's work stands on the shoulders of leading scholars in the field, including Gabriel Zucman, Juliana Londoño-Vélez, Mick Keen, and Joel Slemrod, among others. By weaving together his research with their recent contributions, the keynote promises to deliver a comprehensive and up-to-date understanding of the offshore tax haven landscape.

Keynote on the challenge of offshore tax havens

Niels Johannesen | University of Copenhagen
Chair: Pia Rattenhuber | UNU-WIDER

COLLABORATORS

11:00-12:10 (UTC+2)

Johannesen, NielsNiels Johannesen | Keynote

Niels Johannesen is a professor of economics at the University of Copenhagen and the co-director of the EU Tax Observatory. Much of his academic work revolves offshore tax havens and how they are used by multinational firms, wealthy individuals and corrupt elites for tax evasion and money laundering. 

His work has been published in journals such as the American Economic Review, PNAS, Review of Financial Studies, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of the European Economic Association, Economic Journal, Journal of International Economics, and Journal of Public Economics.

Rattenhuber, PiaPia Rattenhuber | Chair

Pia Rattenhuber is a Research Fellow at UNU-WIDER. She has previously worked for OECD (Department of Labour and Social Affairs), the German Ministry of Economics and the German Institute of Economic Research (DIW Berlin).

She attained her PhD from Free University Berlin. Her works focuses on social protection systems, taxation and tax-benefit microsimulation models.

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