Profit and Power : Arbitrage in the Era of the Multinational Corporation

Palan, Ronen

Cambridge University Press（2026/01発売）

• 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版／ページ数 270 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9781009605274

Full Description

Why are Multinational Corporations so powerful and elites so wealthy while still operating within nation-state rules? Profit and Power examines how firms engage in legal transgression, operating at the edges of legality to maximize profits. Offering a practical analysis of jurisdictional arbitrage, Ronen Palan exposes the hidden mechanisms behind corporate power in globalization and reveals how the rule-based transgressor elite emerged through strategic use of MNC structures. Tracing the origins to the late nineteenth century, Palan focuses on centrally-coordinated multi-corporate enterprises (CCMCEs) - networks of legally independent yet interconnected firms. He explores the gap between the legal entity and the corporate group, a loophole long exploited to arbitrage national regulations, including taxation. This is the first systematic study of jurisdictional arbitrage and its impact on states and society. By analysing corporate decision-making within fragmented regulatory environments, it unveils the systemic role of legal ambiguity in shaping modern capitalism and corporate dominance.

Contents

Introduction; 1. Decoding jurisdictional arbitrage: strategies, implications, and global dynamics; 2. The advent of the centrally coordinated multi-corporate enterprise; 3. Tools of trade; 4. Corporate tax arbitrage; 5. How the European Union became a facilitator of global corporate tax avoidance; 6. A world of fuses and splitters; 7. How not to tell by telling: reporting and disclosure arbitrage; 8. Geopolitics and jurisdictional arbitrage: does the US arbitrage the world?; 9: The hidden empire: how MNCs redefine power through arbitrage; Conclusions.