The Wealth Defence Industry:A Large-scale Study on Accountancy Firms as Profit Shifting Facilitators

Corporations increasingly engage in innovative ‘tax planning strategies’ by shifting profits between jurisdictions. In response, states try to curtail such profit shifting activities while at the same time attempting to retain and attract multinational corporations. We aim to open up this dichotomy between states and corporations and argue that a wealth defence industry of professional service firms plays a crucial role as facilitators. We investigate the subsidiary structure of 27,000 MNCs and show that clients of the Big Four accountancy firms show systematically higher levels of aggressive tax planning strategies than clients of smaller accountancy firms. We specify this effect for three distinct strategies and also uncover marked differences across countries. As such we provide empirical evidence for the systematic involvement of auditors as facilitators in corporate wealth defence

Zur Erfassung der Multiplen Sklerose in der schweizerischen Todesursachenstatistik: Mortalitäts-Follow-Up der Berner MS-Prävalenzstudie aus dem Jahr 1986

Zusammenfassung: Ausgehend von einer Prävalenzuntersuchung zur Multiplen Sklerose (MS) im Kanton Bern aus dem Jahr 1986 wurde eine Nacherhebung im Hinblick auf die Mortalität der MS-Patientlnnen durchgeführt. Dazu wurden per Stichdatum 01. 01. 1996 Auskünfte über den Aufenthalt/Tod der erfassten Personen bei den Zivilstandesämtern eingeholt. Zudem wurden ein Record-Linkage mit Daten aus der schweizerischen Todesursachenstatistik unternommen. Von den ursprünglich dokumentierten Fällen waren es 10 Jahre später etwas mehr als 80% deren Verbleib eruiert werden konnte. Unter den eindeutig linkbaren Fällen waren in diesem Zeitraum 21% der Patientlnnen gestorben. Dabei wurde bei etwas mehr als 70% der verstorbenen MS-Patientlnnen die MS in der Todesursachenstatistik mitcodiert; 6 von 7 Eintragungen entfallen auf die Haupttodesursache. Der Vergleich mit der Todesursachenstatistik weist aber auch darauf hin, dass ein grosser Teil der nicht eruierten Fälle in Zusammenhang mit der Mortalität steht. Somit bieten die im Follow-Up konsolidierten Informationen für viele weitere Fragestellungen eine wenig befriedigende Grundlage. Es zeigt sich, dass sich die Ausfälle nur durch eine kontinuierliche Aktualisierung und Überprüfung der Personalienangaben aus der Prävalenzstudie vermeiden lasse

Elite recruitment in US finance: How university prestige is used to secure top executive positions

Status attainment theories assert that individuals are recruited based on the length and functional background of their training. Elite theories assume that top managers often deviate from these socially acceptable mechanisms of status attainment to entrench their advantage. In this study, focusing on the US financial sector, we investigate whether educational institution prestige—rather than the subject or length of education—increasingly influences appointments to top executive positions. We analyze 1987 US top executive managers affiliated with 147 firms from both financial and non‐financial sectors in 2005 and 2018. Our study demonstrates that alumni of prestigious universities have a strikingly higher likelihood of attaining a top executive role in finance than in non‐finance. Within finance it is no longer investment banking, but private equity, that contains the highest proportion of elite university graduates. Our findings suggest that notwithstanding the major power shifts between finance and non‐finance—and also within the finance sector—elite groups still dominate the most symbolically valued education, and as a result, top managerial positions

The spectra of neurasthenia and depression: course, stability and transitions

Background: Neurasthenia has had a chequered history, receiving changing labels such as chronic fatigue or Gulf war syndrome. Neurasthenia is recognized by ICD-10, but not by DSM-IV. Its course, longitudinal stability and relationship to depression is not well understood. Methods: In a stratified community sample (n=591), representative of 2600 persons of the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, neurasthenia and depression were assessed in six structured interviews between ages 20 and 41. Course, stability and comorbidity were examined. A severity spectrum of neurasthenia and depression from symptoms to diagnosis was taken into account. Results: The annual prevalence of a neurasthenia diagnosis increased from 0.7% to 3.8% from age 22-41, while mere symptoms became less prevalent. Intraindividual courses improved in 40% and deteriorated in about 30% of symptomatic cases. The most frequent symptoms overall, besides criterial exhaustion, were increased need for sleep, over-sensitivity, nervousness and difficulty concentrating. Cross-sectional associations and overlap with depression were strong. Longitudinal stability of ICD-neurasthenia was low. Conclusions: Neurasthenia is intermittent, overlaps significantly with depression, and shows improvement and deterioration over time to roughly equal measure

Childhood adversity and chronicity of mood disorders

To evaluate the potential impact of early childhood problems on the chronicity of mood disorders. A representative cohort from the population was prospectively studied from ages 19/20 to 39/40. Unipolar (UP) and bipolar disorders (BP) were operationally defined applying broad Zurich criteria for bipolarity. Chronicity required the presence of symptoms for more days than not over 2years prior to an interview, or almost daily occurrence for 1year. A family history and a history of childhood problems were taken at ages 27/28 and 29/30. Data include the first of multiple self-assessments with the Symptom-Checklist-90 R at age 19/20, and mastery and self-esteem assessed 1year later. A factor analysis of childhood problems yielded two factors: family problems and conduct problems. Sexual trauma, which did not load on either factor, and conduct problems were unrelated to chronicity of UP or BP or both together. In contrast, childhood family problems increased the risk of chronicity by a factor of 1.7. An anxious personality in childhood and low self-esteem and mastery in early adulthood were also associated with chronicity. Childhood family problems are strong risk factors for the chronicity of mood disorders (UP and BP). The risk may be mediated partly by anxious personality traits, poor coping and low self-estee

Methods of suicide used by children and adolescents

Although relatively rare, suicide is a leading cause of death in children and adolescents in the Western world. This study examined whether children and adolescents are drawn to other methods of suicide than adults. Swiss suicides from 1998 to 2007 were examined. The main methods of suicide were analysed with respect to age and gender. Of the 12,226 suicides which took place in this 10-year period, 333 were committed by children and adolescents (226 males, 107 females). The most prevalent methods of suicide in children and adolescents 0-19years were hanging, jumping from heights and railway-suicides (both genders), intoxication (females) and firearms (males). Compared to adults, railway-suicides were over-represented in young males and females (both P<.001). Jumping from heights was over-represented in young males (P<.001). Thus, availability has an important effect on methods of suicide chosen by children and adolescents. Restricting access to most favoured methods of suicide might be an important strategy in suicide preventio

Does psychomotor agitation in major depressive episodes indicate bipolarity?: Evidence from the Zurich Study

Background: Kraepelin's partial interpretation of agitated depression as a mixed state of "manic-depressive insanity” (including the current concept of bipolar disorder) has recently been the focus of much research. This paper tested whether, how, and to what extent both psychomotor symptoms, agitation and retardation in depression are related to bipolarity and anxiety. Method: The prospective Zurich Study assessed psychiatric and somatic syndromes in a community sample of young adults (N=591) (aged 20 at first interview) by six interviews over 20years (1979-1999). Psychomotor symptoms of agitation and retardation were assessed by professional interviewers from age 22 to 40 (five interviews) on the basis of the observed and reported behaviour within the interview section on depression. Psychiatric diagnoses were strictly operationalised and, in the case of bipolar-II disorder, were broader than proposed by DSM-IV-TR and ICD-10. As indicators of bipolarity, the association with bipolar disorder, a family history of mania/hypomania/cyclothymia, together with hypomanic and cyclothymic temperament as assessed by the general behavior inventory (GBI) [15], and mood lability (an element of cyclothymic temperament) were used. Results: Agitated and retarded depressive states were equally associated with the indicators of bipolarity and with anxiety. Longitudinally, agitation and retardation were significantly associated with each other (OR=1.8, 95% CI=1.0-3.2), and this combined group of major depressives showed stronger associations with bipolarity, with both hypomanic/cyclothymic and depressive temperamental traits, and with anxiety. Among agitated, non-retarded depressives, unipolar mood disorder was even twice as common as bipolar mood disorder. Conclusion: Combined agitated and retarded major depressive states are more often bipolar than unipolar, but, in general, agitated depression (with or without retardation) is not more frequently bipolar than retarded depression (with or without agitation), and pure agitated depression is even much less frequently bipolar than unipolar. The findings do not support the hypothesis that agitated depressive syndromes are mixed states. Limitations: The results are limited to a population up to the age of 40; bipolar-I disorders could not be analysed (small N

The spectra of neurasthenia and depression: course, stability and transitions

Background: Neurasthenia has had a chequered history, receiving changing labels such as chronic fatigue or Gulf war syndrome. Neurasthenia is recognized by ICD-10, but not by DSM-IV. Its course, longitudinal stability and relationship to depression is not well understood. Methods: In a stratified community sample (n=591), representative of 2600 persons of the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, neurasthenia and depression were assessed in six structured interviews between ages 20 and 41. Course, stability and comorbidity were examined. A severity spectrum of neurasthenia and depression from symptoms to diagnosis was taken into account. Results: The annual prevalence of a neurasthenia diagnosis increased from 0.7% to 3.8% from age 22-41, while mere symptoms became less prevalent. Intraindividual courses improved in 40% and deteriorated in about 30% of symptomatic cases. The most frequent symptoms overall, besides criterial exhaustion, were increased need for sleep, over-sensitivity, nervousness and difficulty concentrating. Cross-sectional associations and overlap with depression were strong. Longitudinal stability of ICD-neurasthenia was low. Conclusions: Neurasthenia is intermittent, overlaps significantly with depression, and shows improvement and deterioration over time to roughly equal measure