ABSTRACT
This book contributes to the study of the offshore world by probing key emerging market cases and the underappreciated role of Mauritius in the global economy. The findings add further weight to the conclusion that the global financial crisis has only resulted in incremental rather than disruptive change to the global political economy. The offshore world remains intact, featuring differentiated outcomes among developed, emerging, and developing countries. The more developed ones have been able to make better use of the new global standards than the less developed ones, the governments of which, whether correctly or not, tend to believe that they are critically dependent on offshore finance. Differentiated outcomes are also found among offshore financial centers, with the least viable ones falling by the wayside as the offshore world consolidates around fewer but better-established jurisdictions offering a broader range of more sophisticated services. This concluding chapter ends by considering whether China might increasingly turn to Mauritius as its financial gateway to Africa. Our analysis is skeptical that these flows will materialize in any substantial form anytime soon.
