About
I'm an Economic Sociologist studying the offshore financial system and the professionals who run it. My research addresses inequality, both political and economic, as well as globalization and the professions.
Who creates change in markets and other financial institutions? I'm interested in how things get done--what social actors actually do in their daily lives--and how that aggregates to the macro-level of financial markets, culture and political institutions. My work intersects with the literatures of political economy, anthropology, social psychology and behavioral finance.
Since 2007, I've focused on the offshore financial system, which I studied from the inside after spending two years earning a wealth management credential; that was followed by six more years traveling to every region of the world, interviewing and interacting with practitioners in 18 offshore centers. The findings of my ethnographic research contribute to the literatures on inequality, political economy and the professions. The book and articles that emerged from this ongoing study are linked below.Previously, my research examined the effects of deception and fraud in financial markets, as well as the impact of diversity on the performance and decision-making processes of investment groups.
Books
2016, Harvard University Press
Read the Symposium on the book published in Socio-Economic Review 17 (2): 461-470
"Law is reason, free from passion."
Aristotle
Scholarly Articles
Why Do People Pay Taxes?
Explaining Tax Compliance By Individuals2021, Pp. 356-374 in Handbook on the Politics of Taxation, Lukas Hakelberg and Laura Seelkopf (Eds.), Edward Elgar; with Alice Guerra
Transnational Professionals
2020, Annual Review of Sociology 46: 399 - 417; with Leonard Seabrooke
Turning Vice Into Virtue:
Institutional Work & Professional Misconduct2019, Human Relations, 72 (9): 1464-1496
Between Kinship & Commerce:
Fiduciaries & the Institutional Logic of Family Firms2018, Family Business Review, 31 (4): 417-440; with Vanessa Strike
Attitude-Behavior Consistency in Tax Compliance:
A Cross-National Comparison2018, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 156: 184-205; with Alice Guerra
Habitus & the Labor of Representation Among Elite Professionals
2017, Journal of Professions and Organization, 4: 282-301
Fraud & Fantasy: Toward a New Research Agenda for Economic Sociology
2017, Socio-Economic Review, 15 (1): 249-255
Studying Elite Professionals in Transnational Settings
2017, Pp. 39-49 in Professional Networks in Transnational Governance, Leonard Seabrooke and Lasse Folke Henriksen (Eds.), Cambridge University Press
Social Structure, Power & Financial Fraud
2016, Pp. 340-355 in The Global Financial Crisis: Economics, Psychology and Values, Tassos Malliaris, Leslie Shaw and Hersh Shefrin (Eds.), Oxford University Press
Going Global: Professionals & the Microfoundations of Institutional Change
2015, Journal of Professions and Organization, 2 (2): 103-121
Immersion Ethnography of Elites
2015, Pp. 134-142 in Handbook of Qualitative Organizational Research, Kim Elsbach and Roderick Kramer (Eds.), Routledge
The Companies We Keep: From Legitimacy to Reputation in Retail Investment
2014, Socio-Economic Review, 12: 186-195
States & Financial Crises
2013, Pp. 267-282 in Introduction to Political Sociology, Benedikte Brincker (Ed.), Gyldendal Akademisk
Trust & Estate Planning: A Profession & Its Contribution to Socio-Economic Inequality
2012, Sociological Forum, 27 (4): 825-846
Scenes from a Power Struggle: The Rise of Retail Investors in the US Stock Market
2012, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 34: 231-258
From Trustees to Wealth Managers
2012, Pp. 190-209 in Inherited Wealth, Justice & Equality, Guido Erreygers and John Cunliffe (Eds.), Routledge
Shame & Stock Market Losses:
The Case of Amateur Investors in the US2012, Pp. 81-98 in Emotions in Finance, Jocelyn Pixley (Ed.), Routledge
The Sociology of Financial Fraud
2012, Pp. 393-410 in The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Finance, Karin Knorr-Cetina and Alex Preda (Eds.), Oxford University Press
Politics in the Public Sphere: The Power of Tiny Publics in Classical Sociology
2008, Sociologica, 1/2008: 1-20; with Gary Fine
Can Small Investors Survive Social Security Privatization?
2007, Pp. 308-13 in David Canon, John Coleman and Kenneth Mayer (Eds.), Faultlines: Debating the Issues in American Politics, W.W. Norton
Where the Action Is:
Small Groups & Contemporary Sociological Theory2006, Small Group Research, 37 (1): 1-16; with Gary Fine
Tiny Publics: Small Groups & Civil Society
2004, Sociological Theory, 22 (3): 341-356; with Gary Fine
The Social Psychology of Access in Ethnographic Research
2003, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 32 (5): 592-625
The Pervasive Effects of Network Content
2002, Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings, 50: 1-6
Obtrusiveness as Strategy in Ethnographic Research
2002, Qualitative Sociology, 25 (1): 49-61
Organizational Performance & Corporate Social Capital
2001, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 18: 83-106
Opening the ‘Black Box:’
Small Groups & 21st Century Sociology2000, Social Psychology Quarterly, 63 (4): 312-323; with Gary Fine
"Law is reason, free from passion."
Aristotle
Media
Secrecy, Simmel, and the New Sociology of Wealth
2021, Sociologica 15 (2): 143 - 152
"Law is reason, free from passion."
Aristotle
