Events

Over the past decade, the architecture of international tax enforcement has undergone a transformation in the fight against tax secrecy. To what extent newly introduced reforms such as the automatic exchange of financial account information and the introduction of beneficial ownership registries have actually reduced financial secrecy?

This conference examines emerging evidence on how these transparency innovations affect offshore tax evasion and illicit activity. Drawing on new administrative data and cross-country research, it explores both successes and implementation gaps, highlighting how outcomes depend on the interaction between global standards, domestic enforcement capacity, and evolving forms of secrecy.

The conference will feature four academic sessions, policy panel and keynote by Pascal Saint-Amans “The automatic exchange of information – a success story?”.

The World Inequality Lab is organizing the third edition of the World Inequality Conference, to be held at the Paris School of Economics on June 4-5, 2026.

Objectives

The conference will be structured around three pillars:

1. Release of the Global Justice Report: The report will explore what a just distribution of socioeconomic and environmental resources could look like at the global level from 2026 to 2100 – both between and within countries – in a way that is compatible with planetary boundaries.

2. Keynote Sessions: Speakers will include academics, policymakers and writers.

3. Paper Presentations: Accepted submissions will be organized into parallel theme-wise sessions.

Call for Papers

We welcome submissions of papers on inequality (broadly defined), with a focus on the key research areas covered by the World Inequality Lab, namely:

• • Measurement of historical income and wealth dynamics
  • Environmental inequalities
  • Global wealth distribution dynamics
  • Factors contributing to income and wealth inequality
  • Political inequalities
  • Gender inequality
  • Inequality perceptions
  • Taxation and tax evasion
  • Methodological advances in the measurement of inequalities

To apply, please read the application guidelines, and then fill in the form.

Important Dates

• • Submission Deadline: 1^st December 2025
  • Notification of Decisions: 15^th February 2026
  • Registration Open: 15^th February 2026
  • Registration Deadline: 1^st April 2026
  • Public Release of Programme: 15^th April 2026
  • Registration Deadline: 1^st April 2026

Scientific Committee: The review of submissions will be coordinated by a scientific committee comprising of Lucas Chancel, Ignacio Flores (Co-Chair), Romaine Loubes, Cornelia Mohren, Rowaida Moshrif, Thomas Piketty, and Anmol Somanchi (Co-Chair).

Registration

• • For accepted papers: Deadline is April 1, 2026
  • Conference programme: To be announced on April 15, 2026
  • General public registration: Opens April 15, 2026 | Closes May 15, 2026

Admissions

Registration to the conference and attendance is fully free of charge. Most researchers are expected to finance their own travel and accommodation. A limited number of grants will be made available for young researchers registered at institutions in lower- and middle-income countries. Please make sure to indicate a request for financial assistance in the submission form. Depending upon circumstances, it may not be possible to accept all such requests.

Organization Committee: The overall organization of the conference will be coordinated by an organization committee comprising of Lucas Chancel (Co-Chair), Jonas Dietrich, Alice Fauvel (Co-Chair), Rowaida Moshrif, Moritz Odersky, Thomas Piketty, and Anmol Somanchi (Co-Chair).

Contact

Plenary sessions and most side-sessions will be organized by the WIL. External organizations interested in hosting a side-session are invited to send a brief session outline proposal by 1 December to conference[at]wid.world. Availability is limited, and requests will be considered based on relevance and space.

For any questions, please email conference[at]wid.world.

Partners

The increased global mobility of capital and labour poses a number of challenges to national tax systems: intricate global structures to hide personal wealth from the eyes of tax administrators and regulators, conflicts about the international allocation of taxing rights, a fast-evolving international tax policy landscape. The seminar focuses on the topic of taxation in the global economy and aims to bring together international junior and senior researchers working on international taxation, tax avoidance and evasion, tax competition, tax harmonization and related topics. Presentations can be polished papers or work in progress. The aim is to learn from each other and to discuss in a friendly atmosphere.

The seminar takes place at Paris School of Economics and via Zoom.

Sign-up for the seminar mailing list here.

If you would like to book a private time slot to meet the speaker, please email Ninon Moreau-Kastler ninon.moreau-kastler@psemail.eu or Léo Czajka leo.czajka@psemail.eu specifying which session.

This project has received funding from the European Union (TAXUD/2022/DE/310).

2025-26 Calendar

Friday 6 February 2025 12:00-13:00 │ R1-15

• Guillermo Cruces

Friday 13 February 2025 12:00-13:00 │ R1-15

• Camille Semelet

Friday 27 February 2025 12:00-13:00 │ R1-15

• Joana Naritomi

Friday 6 February 2025 12:00-13:00 │ R1-15

• Guillermo Cruces

Friday 13 March 2025 12:00-13:00 │ R1-15

• Dzhamilya Nigmatulin

Friday 20 March 2025 12:00-13:00 │ R1-15

• David Henning

Friday 24 April 2025 12:00-13:00 │ R1-15

• Adnan Khan

Friday 22 May 2025 12:00-13:00 │ R1-15

• Nathan Lane

Past Seminars

Friday September 19 2025 12:00-13:00 │ R1-15

• Margarita López Forero (SERMI-DPEM, Banque de France): Offshoring Wage Inequality in Tax Havens with Kevin Parra-Ramirez and Gabriel Smagghue

Friday 26 September 2025 12:00-13:00 │ R1-15

• Laurence Jacquet (CY Cergy Paris Université): Production Regulation Principles and Tax Reforms

Friday 3 October 2025 12:00-13:00 │ R1-15

• Usama Jamal (CY Cergy Paris University): Tax Rules and Capital Reallocation: Real Effects of Anti-Tax Avoidance Policies

Friday 10 October 2025 12:00-13:00 │ R1-09

• Isabel Micó Millán (Bank of Spain): Inheritance Tax Avoidance Through the Family Firm

Friday 17 October 2025 12:00-13:00 │ R1-15

• Rocco Macchiavello (London School of Economics): Mafias and Firms

Friday 24 October 2025 12:00-13:00 │ R1-15

• Enea Baselgia (ETH Zurich): Inequality and Redistribution in Switzerland: Evidence from Distributional National Accounts

Friday 7 November 2025 12:00-13:00 │ R1-15

• Enrico Rubolino (University of Lausanne, CREST): How Teaching Tax Morale in Schools Shapes Prosocial Behavior

Friday 21 November 2025 12:00-13:00 │ R1-14

• Jakob Brounstein (Institute for Fiscal Studies): Discouraging firm ownership via tax havens in Ecuador

Friday 28 November 2025 12:00-13:00 │ R1-15

• Joana Garcia (Banco de Portugal): Inheritance Tax Avoidance Through the Family Firm

The Offshore Talks – An Exploration of Tax Avoidance, Tax Evasion and Illicit Financial Flows

How do the wealthy manage to dodge taxes and hide their fortunes in secret jurisdictions? What is the impact of hidden financial flows on the world economy? It’s time to lift the veil! Join us for The Offshore Talks, a groundbreaking lecture series that dives deep into the world of tax avoidance, tax evasion, and illicit financial flows.

🌍 What’s in store? Leading voices from economics, law, political science, investigative journalism, and beyond will converge to share their latest research and real-world insights. Get ready for an exciting lineup of distinguished speakers who will help you navigate the hidden mechanisms that shape global inequality.

The seminar takes place at the Paris School of Economics.

Sign-up for the seminar mailing list here.

Past seminars:

🎥  Offshore: Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism with Brooke Harrington, Professor of Economic Sociology, Dartmouth College.

🎥  Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy with Quinn Slobodian, Professor of international history at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University.

The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires with Kristin Surak, Associate Professor of Political Sociology at the London School of Economics.