PhD-Project: The Macroeconomics of Offshoring and Intergovernmental Policy Competition - A Post-Keynesian Analysis of Key Aspects of Neoliberal Globalisation

Ryan Woodgate (HWR Berlin; IPE Berlin), PhD registered at Université Paris Sorbonne Nord
Supervisors: Prof. Eckhard Hein, HWR Berlin; Dr.Antoine Godin, Agence Française de Développement

About

The current era of neoliberal globalisation is distinguished from previous waves of globalisation primarily by the phenomenal growth of cross-border trade in tasks. Such traded tasks include not only those embodied in the offshoring of production, but also managerial tasks such as the shielding of profits for tax minimisation purposes. Rather than try to reign in offshoring and tax avoidance, most governments around the world have facilitated and intensified these processes in recent decades by competing on tax rates and other policy variables to appease multinational corporations and attract a part of their soaring foreign direct investment flows. Recognising a gap in the literature, this thesis analyses these issues from a post-Keynesian perspective. The key phenomena of offshoring and intergovernmental policy competition are explored empirically and their macroeconomic effects are modelled through short-run and long-run models. These models, primarily Kaleckian in nature, shed light on key modern macroeconomic phenomena, such as growing inequality, the global race to the bottom in corporate tax rates, rising FDI flows, secular stagnation, and low inflation rates. The models, it is argued, also have clear implications for policy. Lastly, a case study of Ireland is also presented, where an econometric approach is taken to try to disentangle of the effects of tax competition from the effects of an increasing profit share on demand and output. In sum, this thesis contributes to a clearer understanding within a demand-led framework of the role and macroeconomic effects of offshoring and intergovernmental policy competition in modern global capitalism.

Related publications

• Woodgate, R. (2023). Offshoring via vertical FDI in a long-run Kaleckian Model, Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, 46(1), 32-64
• Woodgate, R. (2022). Profit-led in effect or in appearance alone? Estimating the Irish demand regime given the influence of multinational enterprises. Review of Evolutionary Political Economy. 3(2), 319-350
• Woodgate, R. (2021). Multinational corporations and commercialised states: Can state aid serve as the basis for an FDI-driven growth strategy? Institute for International Political Economy, Working Paper No. 161/2021
• Woodgate, R. (2020). Can tax competition boost demand? Causes and consequences of the global race to the bottom in corporate tax rates. Review of Keynesian Economics, 8(4), 512-535