Linus Zechlin

From Creative Destruction to Winner Takes All – A Commentary on the Nobel Prize and the Role of the State in Innovation Earlier this week, Philippe Aghion, together with Joel Mokyr and Peter Howitt, was awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. In their research, the laureat…

From Creative Destruction to Winner Takes All – A Commentary on the Nobel Prize and the Role of the State in Innovation

tinyurl.com/4v8hftjr

Tax as Antitrust: Why Corporate Profit Taxation Is the Real Wealth Tax Debates about inequality often revolve around wealth taxes. The argument runs that if the top 1% hoard an ever-larger share of global wealth, then the way to fund a social state is to skim a portio…

Why taxing corporate profits isn’t just about revenue — it’s about counter-power. Think of it as antitrust by other means: clipping the wings of monopolies before their rents harden into dynastic wealth and political dominance.

democracychallenged.com/2025/09/22/t...

New working paper out:
Exploring non-linearity in the relationship between economic complexity and financial development

The G7’s Corporate Tax Escape Hatch: Fuelling Inequality and Killing Trust in Democracy In June 2025 the G7 quietly unraveled one of the boldest tax reforms ever attempted. The OECD global minimum tax was designed to curb profit shifting. A single clause now exempts United States mult…

The G7’s Corporate Tax Escape Hatch: Fuelling Inequality and Killing Trust in Democracy

democracychallenged.com/2025/07/03/t...

Very excited to kick of my passion project. Together with Sofia Quaglia and Moritz Marpe, I have founded the complexity working group CHAOS, based at Aletheia Research.

More information:
sites.google.com/view/linusze...

A Primer on Intangible Capital – What’s There to Know? with Aidan Regan In recent weeks, we’ve repeatedly discussed intangible assets and their role in the complex tax strategies of multijurisdictional corporate groups (MJGs). Intangibles were central …

We’ve written a lot about intangible assets in our case studies. Time to step back and ask: what makes intangibles special - and how are they reshaping modern capitalism?

A Primer on Intangible Capital - What’s There to Know?
@linusze.bsky.social

democracychallenged.com/2025/05/26/a...

Germany is facing its deepest economic and democratic crisis in decades. Real wages are down, the far right is rising—and the new government has no plan that speaks to the scale of the challenge. A thread 🧵

From Brave New World to Apple vs. Brussels: How Media Fragmentation Shapes Our Reality with Lakshmi Menon and Aidan Regan What happens when one tax ruling sparks six national narratives? From Orwell’s censorship to Huxley’s information overload, Apple’s €13B showdow…

From Brave New World to #Apple vs. #Brussels: How Media Fragmentation Shapes Our Reality

New blog post by Oscar Barrera-Rodríguez, Lakshmi Menon and @aidanregan.bsky.social. They unpack the reactions sparked by last year’s landmark #tax ruling.

democracychallenged.com/2025/05/13/f...

Recommended read by my colleague Oscar Barrera-Rodríguez, alumni of @pse.bsky.social.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Read the article last night, great stuff!

Exclusive: Ireland’s $967 billion ‘Tax Mirage’ revealed Business Post Special Investigation finds just 80 firms account for 90 per cent of IP held here in sophisticated tax avoidance scheme

Check out this in-depth investigation @aidanregan.bsky.social, Lakshmi Menon and I did with the @businesspost.bsky.social. We identify the crucial role of intangible capital in Ireland's tax games and the opaque structured of especially pharma and tech firms.

www.businesspost.ie/news/ireland...

YouTube video by EU Tax Observatory Panel discussion: Profit-Shifting in Ireland and Europe: Where Do We Stand?

Rewatch the panel discussion event we organised with the @taxobservatory.bsky.social on #profitshifting and #taxavoidance in Ireland and the EU.

youtu.be/rRHFo0j4DsQ?...

We’re happy to welcome Linus Zechlin as a new IPE Associate Member! A PhD student at UCD and part of the ERC project Democracy Challenged, he researches tax avoidance, corporate power, and inequality.
More: www.ipe-berlin.org/en/institute...

Great event we did last week together with the EUTO.

The Double-Edged Sword of American Multinationals and the EU’s trade war dilemma Donald Trump’s brute reclaim of power, his record streak of executive orders, and Elon Musk’s illegitimate involvement in government were quickly followed by critics pointing out the immense …

The Double-Edged Sword of American Multinationals and the EU’s trade war dilemma democracychallenged.com/2025/03/24/t...

Musk’s War Chest: Tesla’s Tax Strategy and the Weaponisation of Wealth By Rafael Quintero Godinez and Aidan Regan The Tax Games That Power Tesla and Musk’s Political Influence At the intersection of tax law and political economy lies a deeply entrenched orthodoxy that…

#Tesla's profits yield minimal US taxes via loopholes and offshore tactics. This funds ideological projects and far-right alliances in Europe.

New blog post:

#Musk’s War Chest: Tesla’s Tax Strategy and the Weaponisation of #Wealth democracychallenged.com/2025/02/28/m...

Thank you @openuniversity.bsky.social for inviting me to present a publication that came out of my Master's last year.

The Democratic Cost of Pfizer’s Financial Secrecy in Ireland – and Trump’s Tariff’s War. Pfizer is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, with a significant presence in Ireland. However, a forensic accounting analysis of Pfizer’s Irish subsidiaries raises serious con…

The Democratic Cost of Pfizer’s Financial Secrecy in Ireland - and Trump's Tariff's War. democracychallenged.com/2025/02/14/t...
#tradewar #ireland #usa #democracy

Democracy Challenged, the project under which I do my PhD, is now online.
democracychallenged.com