Winner-Takes-All: Corporate Tax Avoidance, Market Power, and Wealth Concentration in Advanced Capitalist Democracies

Corporate tax avoidance has been a key driver of rising corporate wealth concentration and market power, posing significant risks to capitalist democracies. This paperexplores how tax avoidance exacerbates corporate inequality, suppresses competition,
and fosters oligopolistic market structures. Using empirical data from Orbis-Historical on all US firms with revenues exceeding $1 million (1993–2022), it analyses the disproportionate impact of tax avoidance in knowledge-intensive industries, particularly big Tech and Big Pharma.

The study positions taxation as an underutilised regulatory tool that, alongside antitrust law, can help curb excessive corporate dominance. Through a combination of quantitative market concentration metrics, comparative sectoral analysis, and case studies of Apple, Tesla, and Johnson & Johnson, this paper demonstrates how large multi-jurisdictional groups (MJGs) in the top 1% consolidate power through tax arbitrage, profit shifting, and regulatory loopholes. The findings support the argument that unchecked corporate concentration fosters oligarchic tendencies within advanced capitalist democracies.