Emergence of foreign wealth in Switzerland

During the first phase of the URPP, we documented and analyzed wealth concentration in Zurich, the epicenter of domestic industrial and financial capitalism. We plan to contrast this analysis with case studies that might bring new understanding on how tax competition was used in Switzerland as a magnet to attract foreign wealth, which likely contributed in the long term to the currently very high levels of wealth inequality in Switzerland. To bring historical depth to this topic, we will study the emergence and diffusion of expenditures-based taxation (“Pauschalbesteuerung”) in various Swiss cantons since the end of the 19th century. First developed in the Lake Geneva region in connection with Belle Epoque high-end tourism, such tax schemes then spread to alpine tourist regions by the 1950s, before developing by the late 20th century in Central Switzerland cantons. This study will enable us to contrast, by using a sociographic method, the structure of foreign top wealth in comparison to its domestic component. We also intend to develop research on the political economy of tax competition, both at the inter-cantonal-level as well as the inter-national level: Did other countries/regions introduce specific low-tax solutions to attract top wealth? And how did countries react to “wealth leakage” related to the use of expenditure-based taxation in Switzerland? This research will be based on cantonal and national archive data in order to understand not only local dynamics but also how tax competition was debated, fostered, or resisted at the national level, as well as foreign perspectives on these Swiss developments.

Prof. Matthieu Leimgruber
Project Leader
Department of History

Geoffroy Legentilhomme
Post-Doc
Department of History

We are using federal and cantonal archives: tax registers, but also internal correspondence of tax authorities, as well as a variety of media and printed sources.

For further information about the project and data availability please contact:  geoffroy.legentillhomme@uzh.ch