Panama Papers' offshoring network behavior

Heliyon. 2020 Jun 26;6(6):e04293. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04293. eCollection 2020 Jun.

Abstract

The present study analyzes the offshoring network constructed from the information contained in the Panama Papers, characterizing worldwide regions and countries as well as their intra- and inter-relationships. The Panama Papers 2016 divulgence is the largest leak of offshoring and tax avoidance documentation. The document leak, with a volume content of approximately 2.6 terabytes, involves more than two hundred thousand enterprises in more than two hundred countries. From this information, the offshore connections of individuals and companies are constructed and aggregated using their countries of origin. The top offshore financial regions and countries of the network are identified, and their intra- and inter-relationship are mapped and described. We are able to identify the top countries in the offshoring network and characterize their connectivity structure, discovering the more prominent actors in the worldwide offshoring scenario and their range of influence.

Keywords: Business; Economics; Geographical networks; Globalization; Graph Theory; International Relations; Money; Network Analysis; Offshore societies; Panama Papers; Tax havens.