Dr. Nora Paulus is the Excellent Thesis Award winner from the FDEF Doctoral School in Economics and Finance. This award recognises excellence and quality in doctoral theses. We asked Dr. Paulus to tell us a bit more about her work and what it means in a broader context.
Can you explain your thesis topic in a few sentences?
My thesis focuses on two subjects: the dynamics of inter-jurisdictional competition for mobile tax bases and the impact of controlled-foreign company rules on tax competition.
In the major part of the thesis, I investigate issues regarding dynamic tax competition. In this context, I analyse the consequences of tax competition in a dynamic setting, in which capital can flow more or less sluggishly from one jurisdiction to another as a response to policy changes and governments interact differently according to specific behavioural patterns.
A last part of the dissertation is devoted to a mitigation rule (Controlled-Foreign-Company Rule) of “harmful” tax avoidance practices of multinational firms. Indeed, multinationals can lower their tax bill by shifting profits to tax havens or relocate capital to the country which taxes less.”
What are your plans, now that you finished your thesis?
I want to continue doing research and teaching. I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU) and the University of Trier. My main research focus is now on Labour Economics.
How can your research serve society?
I hope that my research can contribute to a better understanding of the long-term consequences of inter-jurisdictional competition for mobile tax bases.
We congratulate Dr. Paulus along with all award recipients!
Read more about the Excellent Thesis Award and the 2020 winners.