The project aimed at understanding how the Estonian e-residency program impacts the EU-level efforts of international tax cooperation, as well as the concept of economic citizenship that underlies the international tax system? Should the e-residency initiative be seen as a new solution to the governance challenges of the EU's Digital Single Market, or does it rather accelerate international race to the bottom in business regulation? How does the initiative alter the self- perception of both Estonian government and the entrepreneurs that use e-residency?
Answers to these questions were sought from 30 interviews, insights gained from three seminars that discussed the e-residency and the Estonian anti-money laundering controls, as well as from an extensive range of policy documents, transcripts from governmental hearings and other such sources that either conveyed or assessed governmental work related to e-residency. Media materials and quantitative analysis of permits related to Estonian cryptocurrency trading licenses – many of which utilized companies formed under e-residency – were also used. Information on cryptocurrency trading permits were compared with the data obtained from international corporate financial account database Orbis to study board interlocks between Estonian-based cryptocurrency companies and companies registered in known tax havens.
The project involved various kinds of transfer of knowledge between the home and the host institution. First, such transfer of knowledge occurred in regular staff seminars, which convened over Zoom during the pandemic restrictions, in an annual retreat of the faculty, and in informal settings within and outside the department. Second, the project involved two coauthored articles with staff members of the host institution, which also contributed to joint outreach work for the general public. Third, parts of this transfer of knowledge was forward-looking, with collaboration activities in at least one major grant application that is in works in fall 2022. Fourth, the project involved participation in the grading of numerous Master’s Theses as well as in grading one thesis for the Erasmus Master’s Program.
Tentative outcomes of the project were disseminated in seminars and conferences, including a panel organized in the Nordic Development Days in 2021, and presentations at the staff seminars of the host department. The Finnish embassy in Tallinn was interested in this research, which was disseminated to them in in-person meetings and in writing. This correspondence also resulted in an invitation to contribute to a hearing organized for the joint cooperation report between the governments of Finland and Estonia.
One of the anticipated articles is in peer review as a shorter Research Note at the Transnational Corporations journal of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Research Notes convey policy-relevant research for the wide global readership of the journal both in academia as well as in policy circles.
