The legal selling of passports and visas

Subtitle:the influence of institutional characteristics

Citizenship and residence by investment programs (CRBIs) are becoming more popular, generating a significant amount of revenues for several governments, and helping to erode tax bases across the globe. Moreover, puzzling, many of the newest programs have emerged in the countries deeply affected by economic crises, which in turn are known for creating backlashes against migration and international capital flows. Therefore, which are the countries more likely to sell their citizenship and visas? I hypothesize an association between CRBIs and formal, informal, political, and cognitive institutions. My novel sample of 215 countries and jurisdictions with data from 1976 to 2019 provides significant statistical evidence of these institutional hypotheses. Moreover, differing from the leading literature on the topic, I find not empirical evidence that economic crises are associated with CRBIs. Additionally, after extending the empirical analysis, I also find a strong correlation between tax havens and CRBIs. These findings have important implications for the CRBIs, institution, and tax literatures as well as broader questions.

Publication year:2021

Keywords:Minutes and reports

Accessibility:Closed