bio
Marcel Olbert is Professor of Accounting and Taxation at the University of Mannheim, where he has been serving since February 2026. Prior to joining Mannheim, he was a professor at the London Business School, where he received international recognition for his teaching, including being named one of Poets&Quants’ “40 Under 40 Best MBA Professors.”
His research focuses on corporate taxation, international tax planning, private equity, the investment behavior of multinational firms, the economic effects of transparency and disclosure, sustainability regulation (ESG), and the impact of economic policy on developing countries. Across these areas, his work examines how firms respond to regulation and public policy, and how such responses shape corporate behavior and real economic outcomes.
Olbert’s research is published in leading international journals such as the Review of Financial Studies, The Accounting Review, the Journal of Accounting and Economics, and the Journal of Accounting Research. He serves on the Editorial Review Board of The Accounting Review and is an Associate Editor of the European Accounting Review. His work is regularly presented at major international conferences and leading academic institutions, and he contributes to public economic debates through keynotes as well as articles and commentary in media outlets such as Forbes and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).
At the University of Mannheim, Marcel Olbert is also the founding Academic Director of COBRA – the Mannheim Center for Corporate Behavior and Regulation Analysis, a research center dedicated to studying how companies respond to economic policy and regulatory change.
contacts
https://marcelolbert.com/Publications
Taxes and the Global Spillovers of AI Investments
Abstract
We study how tax policy shapes the cross-border spillovers of U.S. firms’ investments in artificial intelligence (AI). Using data on nearly 2,000 U.S. firms and their 40,000 European subsidiaries, we show that European economies are broadly exposed to U.S. AI investments through different industries and firm types. Within U.S. firms, AI investment comes with growth in their European subsidiaries, especially in countries offering R&D tax incentives and low corporate tax rates. At the industry level, a shift–share design reveals positive spillovers through both U.S.-firm expansion and peer-firm diffusion, strongly shaped by local tax policy. Mechanism tests reveal increases in productivity, R&D, and market expansion among U.S. firms’ European subsidiaries, along with greater AI-related product expansion and labor investment by European peer firms. Our analyses suggest that, unlike capital or other intangible investments, U.S.-originating AI investment drives foreign growth in ways strongly shaped by tax policy. Our findings reveal how tax policy attracts frontier technology investment through multinational firm networks.
The Global Network of Oligarch Companies
Abstract
We study how Russian oligarch-affiliated companies operate globally and respond to sanctions. We construct a dataset tracking 70 companies, 1,800 international subsidiaries, and their institutional investors between 2009 and 2023. These companies maintain extensive networks, especially in tax havens. Difference-in-differences estimates show that the 2014 and 2022 sanctions had limited impact on the companies’ global footprint or access to institutional minority investors. Instead, oligarch companies use more tax haven entities, in particular in jurisdictions offering secrecy, and withdraw from jurisdictions with beneficial ownership disclosure regulation. Our findings highlight how organizational complexity and regulatory arbitrage undermine sanctions, suggesting that globally coordinated transparency regulation is critical for enforcement.
Corporate Tax Policy in Developed Countries and Economic Activity in Africa
Abstract
This paper studies whether tax policies in developed nations affect developing economies through cross-border investments by multinational firms. We study firm investment responses to a major U.K. tax reform that drastically reduced the income tax burden for U.K.-based firms. Our identification strategy compares the investment outcomes of U.K. multinational firms in Africa to those of other multinationals with similar ties to Africa but not subject to the large U.K. tax changes that started in 2009. Difference-in-differences estimates show that U.K. multinational firms increased their subsidiary presence in sub-Saharan Africa by 17-26 percent following the U.K. reform. Exploiting location-specific nighttime luminosity data as well as local data from the African Demographic and Health Surveys, we also document increased economic activity and higher employment rates of African citizens within close proximity of local U.K.-owned subsidiaries. These effects are confirmed using novel data on local wealth. Our findings imply that, beyond the goal of motivating home country investment, developed countries’ corporate tax policies impact developing nations.
