ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the literature on international rules to isolate problems of selection bias, endogeneity, and formalism, which in combination lead scholars to overstate the impact of international rules. It shows how a succession of major policy reports has identified the prohibition of anonymous shell corporations as the lynchpin of efforts to combat financial crimes ranging from tax evasion, to money laundering, to corruption. The chapter argues for the merits of direct participation and field experiment methods. It then describes the procedure for gathering evidence (soliciting and buying anonymous financial arrangements) and presents the findings. Chief among these are that international rules proscribing anonymous corporate entities are largely ineffective, though accessing anonymous banking is much harder. The chapter tests the global transparency rules by seeking to break these same rules. The project is based on attempting to found anonymous companies that conceal the author's identity.
