Abstract

"Multinationals and Corporate Taxation: The Co-evolution of Global Business and Governance"

Ben Wubs, Erasmus University Rotterdam (wubs@eshcc.eur.nl)

This talk examines the historical co-creation of international tax regimes and multinational enterprise structures. He traces how governments, corporations, and international organisations have interacted since the early twentieth century to construct the fiscal frameworks governing cross-border business. The paper highlights the mutual shaping of state sovereignty and corporate strategy, showing how firms actively participated in designing the very rules meant to regulate them. By viewing taxation as a co-creative process, Wubs demonstrates how fiscal governance has become an integral component of global business history and an important domain for understanding the interaction between public policy and private enterprise. It addresses questions such as How have multinational enterprises and national governments co-shaped international tax regimes over time? In what ways did firms participate in creating the very fiscal rules meant to regulate them? What does this tell us about the reciprocal relationship between global business and state sovereignty?