In recent years, there have been several high-profile leaks of documents related to the offshore financial industry, such as the Pandora Papers released last year. Some of the data contained in the leaked documents have now been made public. In this brief, SITE researchers Jonathan Lehne and Maiting Zhuang discuss the advantages and pitfalls of using these data for economic analysis. They show that despite some caveats, there are patterns in these data that can shed light on a secretive industry.

Policy brief: Some recently discovered money laundering schemes have funnelled large amounts of illegal money from former soviet states through European banks. This note briefly describes the evolution of the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regime for financial institutions, the introduction of which was concurrent with the post-soviet transition and the connected illegal flows of funds. It discusses the effectiveness of the current AML regime – and its ability to detect and seize illegal funds. The brief also highlights some of its deficiencies as well as lack of compliance with its prescriptions. It proceeds to stress that after judging the current framework insufficient, the US recently introduced whistleblower rewards for AML-infringements. Europe might want to follow their lead if it really aims at limiting money laundering.

Policy brief: The Belarus economy was already struggling to generate growth before both the corona pandemic and the political protests following the August presidential election. The lack of growth was the result of an incomplete transition process to modernize the economy combined with a strong reliance on the Russian economy and its dependence on international commodity prices that have not paid off in recent years. With the added political turmoil and, so far, lack of a new political and economic strategy, the economic outlook for Belarus looks grim. Even if a full-blown crisis may be avoided by restrictive economic policies, stagnation will nevertheless be the most likely outcome without fundamental reforms.

New research on entrepreneurship suggests that religion and traditions shape the family structure to produce effects on family functioning and on the family mindset. These factors subsequently shape how transgenerational entrepreneurship is fostered or hindered through specific business practices in family firms.

Fragile states are particularly vulnerable to adverse economic shocks and in need of international support. Through constructive collaboration with international partners, however, fragile state governments can successfully pursue ambitious reform agendas for the short and long run. SITE and MISUM (Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets) invited the Minister of Finance of the Federal Republic of Somalia, Dr. Abdirahman Dualeh Beileh, and the Swedish ambassador to Somalia, Staffan Tillander, to discuss the role of international partnership in the recent development of economic reforms in Somalia.

New research finds that female founders of entrepreneurial ventures raise significantly more funding when catering to female-dominated industries. Effectively, this means that men are afforded credibility across a broad range of industries, while women are confined to a less lucrative subset of the labor market.

Vinnova continues its long-term support in financial market research in Sweden and has decided to allocate SEK 100 million over the coming five-year period to the Swedish House of Finance at the Stockholm School of Economics.

Business success, especially for entrepreneurs who are just starting out, is often measured in terms of new venture growth. Unfortunately, this kind of growth can be hard to achieve for entrepreneurs who don’t have access to many resources.

How important are remittances from migrant workers for the economies of low-income countries? And how does international legislation to prevent illicit financial flows affect the ability to send such remittances?

Many daughters and sons growing up in a successful family business and who have their own entrepreneurial ideas struggle to become autonomous from the family’s business. Most research tends to examine how younger, next generation family members build their careers by engaging in internal venturing as a way of growing their existing family business. What is lacking here is research that looks at the ways in which these daughters and sons rely on external venturing, that is, to start their own business outside the existing family business, to achieve greater autonomy and pursue their independent business ideas.