Research
The research at the Chair of Economic and Social History focuses on the post-industrial period. We aim at opening the national perspectives in the field and come to a more global interpretation of economic transformation. Our research interest starts from global economic entanglements and comparisons that we can trace down to trade politics, monetary and currency politics, history of prices and inflation, international competition and business history. We are working based on archival material, that we are aiming to connect to quantitative and formal economic history. The chair’s research is interested in the evolution of economic institutions, economic behaviour in international comparison and economic ideas that drove actors. The following research projects are currently in process (for former research project see the menu on the left):
German Foreign Trade in the long run. Development of a data set in SITC standard ("GerTrade") (Funded by the German Research Foundation, 2024-2027)
Today, Germany is one of the most internationally integrated economies in the world. This intensive integration into the world economy has grown historically, from the "first wave of globalisation" before the First World War, the protectionist interwar period, to the "hyperglobalisation" of recent decades. However, the exact way in which this interconnectedness took place, e.g.which industries were the driving forces, has not been researched very well until now. In the long-term project, the available historical trade data will now be structured for the first time for the period from 1880 to the present using the Standard International Trade Classification-scheme of the United Nations (SITC), which is commonly used in international research. The data will be made available for international research in a publicly accessible database via GENESIS, the website of Germany’s Federal Statistical Office, and secured for the long term. Available trade statistics will have to be first digitised, the flows of goods reclassified, and compiled astrade volumes and values for the German territory. In the process, the official data will be critically evaluated on the basis of the current state of research and documented in a comprehensible manner for each individual figure on the basis of the FAIR principles.
Historical Tensions between International Business and National Taxation (Funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, 2022 - 2026)
12 trillion Dollar untaxed wealth – equivalent of 10% of the global GDP – have been held in tax havens in 2022. In large parts, this wealth derived from corporate profits. Nation states, concerned to tackle this loss of state income and to incentivize the re-patronization of profits, agreed to impose strict initiatives, e.g. minimum tax requirements and automated bank information sharing, but in general there has been little effect on the system. One reason for the resistance is its deep historical roots.
Our international collaborative research project aims at tracing the system of corporate tax management back to the late 19th century, by conducting case studies on three prominent Multinational Corporations: Anglo - Persian Oil Corporation (later British Petrol, BP), Aciéries Réunies de Burbach-Eich-Dudelange (ARBED), and Unilever. In our archival research we can detect the knowledge of corporate tax specialists and understand the principles and the strategies of corporate taxation in a very fundamental sense. We found that many issues which politicians are facing today, in fact have a very long history. Profit shifting and transfer pricing have been important tax saving strategies already before WWI. The League of Nations initiatives on double taxation have been toothless in a similar way as modern political initiatives. With our deeper understanding of the more systematic problems of corporate taxation we hope to can inform current politics to adjust its instruments.