Chris Jones
Professor of International Business Aston University
- Birmingham
Professor Chris Jones is an expert in multinationals, tax havens, profit shifting, sanctions, and the public finances of the UK.
Media
Social
Biography
A trained economist, he applies advanced econometric methods to large-scale firm-level data. He has led two major projects funded by the Leverhulme Trust (£121k and £165k). The first examined the institutional drivers of tax haven use by emerging market multinationals, while the second investigates how such practices shape industrial concentration. Together, these projects contribute to a broader research agenda focused on how multinational enterprises navigate and reshape institutional environments in the global economy.
Professor Jones has supervised five PhD students to completion, all of whom now work in UK higher education.
His work has been published in leading academic journals, including Journal of World Business, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of International Management, British Journal of Management, World Development, Journal of Business Research, International Business Review, International Journal of Management Reviews, Management International Review, Critical Perspectives in International Business, The Journal of Travel Research, and Transnational Corporations. He has also contributed public commentary through The Conversation, and his research has received national and international recognition, including best paper awards from the Academy of International Business and the Journal of World Business.
From 2018 to 2022, he served as Head of the Economics, Finance and Entrepreneurship Department at Aston Business School. Under his leadership, the department ranked 15th in the The Guardian League Table (2022) and 101–125th globally in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (2021, jointly with Business and Management).
He holds a Master’s in Higher Education, is a Senior Fellow of Advance HE, and has received multiple teaching awards, including the Economics Network national student-nominated award. He has published pedagogical research in Studies in Higher Education and contributed to curriculum design at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of The Economic Review.
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Economics Network Outstanding Lecturer of the Year
2011
Aston Excellence Award: Outstanding Teacher of the Year
2012
Education
University of Leicester
BA
Economics
2002
University of Leicester
MSc
Financial Economics
2004
University of Nottingham
PhD
Economics
2008
Aston University
MEd
Higher Education
2016
Affiliations
- Academy of International Business
- Centre for Business Prosperity
Links
Media Appearances
How smoking bans could lead to the death of the tobacco industry
The Conversation online
2016-05-31
Smoking bans have been introduced in numerous countries around the world, following the incontrovertible link that’s been made between smoking and cancer. The World Health Organisation estimates that over 6m people a year will die from smoking related illnesses each year and thousands more suffer from the effects of secondhand smoke.
An original Republican tax plan offers Trump a radical tool for corporate tax reform
The Conversation online
2017-01-30
Major US companies have long been known to specialise in profit shifting to tax havens to reduce their tax bill. This erosion of the corporate tax base is thought to lead to rising inequality and deprives countries of important revenues to spend on public services.
Budget 2017: experts respond
The Conversation online
2017-11-22
The UK chancellor of the exchequer, Philip Hammond, has delivered a budget which offered help to first-time home buyers and the prospect of more money for workers in the National Health Service, but his speech was partly overshadowed by sharp cuts to GDP growth forecasts from the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR).
Research Grants
Tax Havens and Emerging Market Multinational Enterprises
Leverhulme Project Grant
2018-2020
With Jun Du, Yama Temouri and Karim Kirollos
Tax Havens & Firm Performance
British Academy Small Research Grant
2014-2015
With Yama Temouri
Articles
Do work placements improve final year academic performance or do high-calibre students choose to do work placements?
Studies in Higher EducationThis study investigates whether the completion of an optional sandwich work placement enhances student performance in final year examinations. Using Propensity Score Matching, our analysis departs from the literature by controlling for self-selection. Previous studies may have overestimated the impact of sandwich work placements on performance because it might be the case that high-calibre students choose to go on placement.
Tax haven networks and the role of the Big 4 accountancy firms
Journal of World BusinessThis paper investigates the association between the Big 4 accountancy firms and the extent to which multinational enterprises build, manage and maintain their networks of tax haven subsidiaries. We extend internalisation theory and derive a number of hypotheses that are tested using count models on firm-level data. Our key findings demonstrate that there is a strong correlation and causal link between the size of an MNE’s tax haven network and their use of the Big 4. We therefore argue that public policy related to the role of auditors can have a significant impact on the tax avoidance behaviour of MNEs.
Identity of Asian Multinational Corporations: influence of tax havens
Asian Business & ManagementThe sustained growth and importance of Asia as a hub of economic, social and political activity has attracted significant foreign direct investment and opportunities for economies from the West and other parts of the world to invest in this fast growing region. Regional headquarters and global innovation hubs of large multinational corporations (MNCs) are evidence of an Asian century phenomenon. The proliferation of tax havens in the region or the use of tax havens by firms in the Asian region is no surprise.
The Relationship Between Corporate Governance and Tax Havens: A Critical Review and Future Research Directions
Annals of Corporate GovernanceThis review investigates the important linkages of the role and extent of corporate governance in explaining tax haven activity by multinational enterprises (MNEs). We contribute to the literature by identifying and mapping how the extant academic and policy literature has hitherto investigated: (1) the magnitude of tax haven activity over time; (2) the channels and mechanisms via which individual MNEs are able to use tax havens; and (3) the determinants that may drive MNEs to invest in tax havens. We further contribute by identifying the linkages through more recent and exciting research that investigates the relationship between corporate governance factors and tax haven activity.
The Relationship Between MNE Tax Haven Use and FDI into Developing Economies Characterized by Capital Flight
Transnational Corporations JournalThe use of tax havens by multinationals is a pervasive activity in international business. However, we know little about the complementary relationship between tax haven use and foreign direct investment (FDI) in the developing world. Drawing on internalization theory, we develop a conceptual framework that explores this relationship and allows us to contribute to the literature on the determinants of tax haven use by developed-country multinationals. Using a large, firm-level data set, we test the model and find a strong positive association between tax haven use and FDI into countries characterized by low economic development and extreme levels of capital flight.
