Paper short abstract:

This paper explains how activists get traction on complex policy issues combining professional expertise and moral authority to push economic justice. The unfolding of country by country reporting in the EU and OECD moves in this direction. However, for now, developing countries are not set to gain.

Paper long abstract:

Global Wealth Chains denote transacted forms of capital operating multi-jurisdictionally for the purposes of wealth creation and protection. Those seeking to protect wealth often conflict with governments seeking revenue and activists seeking economic justice. This paper examines one such conflict over company reporting highlighting how activists can combine expertise with moral authority to trump formal authority and rule-making, changing issue content and shifting the location of issue control. The rapid adoption of country by country reporting for multinational companies in the EU and at the OECD testifies to a shift away from market actor control to a situation where the issue of how multinational corporations report performance and for what purposes is heavily contested. However, at this point new rules that require multinationals to provide financial performance metrics for each jurisdiction of operation are unlikely to account for the interests of developing countries. While activists have gained traction on the issue and some states stand to gain greater traction on international capital, country by country reporting at present will not remedy either the resource curse or the finance curse in Africa.