Axes de recherche
The global financial elite
From the 1980s onwards, financial markets grew in size, a wave of mergers transformed the business landscape and the power constellations of actors in the global economy were facing profound changes. In the wake of these transformations, around the early 2000s, the top five hedge fund managers made higher earnings than the global top 500 CEOs altogether. The PhD project aims to investigate the careers, networks and practices of these high fee earning individuals, who are at the helm of firms such as hedge funds, private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds and accountancy networks and the role they play in the current, finance-led capitalism. More specifically, the project revolves around three dimensions: access to top positions within accountancy firms, coordination of different subgroups of financial intermediaries through multi-layered networks and spread of compensation and offshorisation practices across the network. The research will take advantage of the industry for financial and company data, that generates information on millions of companies and top professionals world-wide. To deal with these large data sets, the project relies on various quantitative approaches, ranging from multiple correspondence analysis to network analysis and regression models.
The Phd is part of the FNS financed research project 'The Rise of the Financial Elite - Access, Integration and Spread of Power' headed by Felix Bühlmann.
