IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/tvecsg/v113y2022i4p331-347.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Global Wealth Chains of Private‐Equity‐Run Physician Practices

Author

Listed:
  • Richard Bůžek
  • Christoph Scheuplein

Abstract

Currently, numerous physician practices in industrial and emerging countries are being taken over by private equity firms and integrated into novel physician corporations. This involves private equity firms producing a global wealth chain (GWC) between their investors and the target asset, using offshore financial centres to facilitate tax‐avoiding reflux of capital. Moreover, they are opening up ambulatory health care as an asset for capital investment by overcoming previous market barriers to ambulatory health care via a legal construct. In this paper, we trace the spatial links of these finance‐side and sector‐specific corporate chains based on a capital flow analysis of private equity takeovers of Medical Care Centres (MCCs) in Bavaria, Germany. With our heuristics of a double‐layered GWC, which enables the extraction of value from the German health system, we contribute to the emerging GWC debate that aims to conceptualise the complex and often opaque spatialisations of financialisation processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Bůžek & Christoph Scheuplein, 2022. "The Global Wealth Chains of Private‐Equity‐Run Physician Practices," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 113(4), pages 331-347, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:tvecsg:v:113:y:2022:i:4:p:331-347
    DOI: 10.1111/tesg.12519
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12519
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/tesg.12519?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Froud, Julie & Johal, Sukhdev & Leaver, Adam & Williams, Karel, 2014. "Financialization across the Pacific: Manufacturing cost ratios, supply chains and power," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 46-57.
    2. Scheuplein, Christoph, 2019. "Private Equity Monitor 2018: Die aktuelle Tätigkeit von Finanzinvestoren in Deutschland," Mitbestimmungsreport 49, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.
    3. Zucman, Gabriel & Fagan, Teresa Lavender & Piketty, Thomas, 2015. "The Hidden Wealth of Nations," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226245423, Febrero.
    4. Leonard Seabrooke & Duncan Wigan, 2017. "The governance of global wealth chains," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 1-29, January.
    5. Scheuplein, Christoph, 2022. "Private equity in Germany: An assessment of transaction, structures and players," Study / edition der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf, volume 127, number 470.
    6. Daniel Haberly & Dariusz Wójcik, 2015. "Tax havens and the production of offshore FDI: an empirical analysis," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 75-101.
    7. Scheuplein, Christoph & Evans, Michaela & Merkel, Sebastian, 2019. "Übernahmen durch Private Equity im deutschen Gesundheitssektor: Eine Zwischenbilanz für die Jahre 2013 bis 2018," IAT Discussion Papers 19/01, Institut Arbeit und Technik (IAT), Westfälische Hochschule, University of Applied Sciences.
    8. J.C. Sharman, 2017. "Illicit Global Wealth Chains after the financial crisis: micro-states and an unusual suspect," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 30-55, January.
    9. Cumming, Douglas (ed.), 2012. "The Oxford Handbook of Private Equity," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195391589.
    10. Leonard Seabrooke & Duncan Wigan, 2014. "Global wealth chains in the international political economy," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 257-263, February.
    11. Martin Sokol & Leonardo Pataccini, 2020. "Winners And Losers In Coronavirus Times: Financialisation, Financial Chains and Emerging Economic Geographies of The Covid‐19 Pandemic," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 111(3), pages 401-415, July.
    12. Wang, Yingdi, 2012. "Secondary buyouts: Why buy and at what price?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 1306-1325.
    13. Gordon L. Clark & Karen P. Y. Lai & Dariusz Wójcik, 2015. "Editorial Introduction to the Special Section: Deconstructing Offshore Finance," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 91(3), pages 237-249, July.
    14. Rex McKenzie & Rowland Atkinson, 2020. "Anchoring capital in place: The grounded impact of international wealth chains on housing markets in London," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(1), pages 21-38, January.
    15. Neil M. Coe & Peter Dicken & Martin Hess, 2008. "Global production networks: realizing the potential," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 271-295, May.
    16. Coe, Neil M. & Yeung, Henry Wai-chung, 2015. "Global Production Networks: Theorizing Economic Development in an Interconnected World," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198703914.
    17. Christine André & Christoph Hermann, 2009. "Privatisation and Marketisation of Health Care Systems in Europe," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Marica Frangakis & Christoph Hermann & Jörg Huffschmid & Károly Lóránt (ed.), Privatisation against the European Social Model, chapter 9, pages 129-144, Palgrave Macmillan.
    18. Benjamin M. Hunter & Susan F. Murray, 2019. "Deconstructing the Financialization of Healthcare," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 50(5), pages 1263-1287, September.
    19. Ben Fine, 2013. "Financialization from a Marxist Perspective," International Journal of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(4), pages 47-66.
    20. Scheuplein, Christoph, 2020. "Wie entwickeln sich Unternehmen mit Private-Equity-Eigentümern in Deutschland?," Study / edition der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf, volume 127, number 447.
    21. Schmid, Andreas & Ulrich, Volker, 2013. "Consolidation and concentration in the German hospital market: The two sides of the coin," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(3), pages 301-310.
    22. Dick Bryan & Michael Rafferty & Duncan Wigan, 2017. "Capital unchained: finance, intangible assets and the double life of capital in the offshore world," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 56-86, January.
    23. Gordon L. Clark & Karen P. Y. Lai & Dariusz Wójcik, 2015. "Editorial Introduction to the Special Section: Deconstructing Offshore Finance," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 91(3), pages 237-249, July.
    24. Javier Garcia-Bernardo & Jan Fichtner & Eelke M. Heemskerk & Frank W. Takes, 2017. "Uncovering Offshore Financial Centers: Conduits and Sinks in the Global Corporate Ownership Network," Papers 1703.03016, arXiv.org, revised May 2017.
    25. Neil M. Coe & Karen P. Y. Lai & Dariusz W�jcik, 2014. "Integrating Finance into Global Production Networks," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(5), pages 761-777, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leonard Seabrooke & Saila Stausholm, 2024. "The firm-territory nexus in a fragmented economy: Scales of global value and wealth chain entanglement," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(8), pages 2213-2231, November.
    2. Oddný Helgadóttir, 2023. "The new luxury freeports: Offshore storage, tax avoidance, and ‘invisible’ art," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(4), pages 1020-1040, June.
    3. Richard Phillips & Hannah Petersen & Ronen Palan, 2021. "Group subsidiaries, tax minimization and offshore financial centres: Mapping organizational structures to establish the ‘in-betweener’ advantage," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(2), pages 286-307, June.
    4. Maj Grasten & Leonard Seabrooke & Duncan Wigan, 2023. "Legal affordances in global wealth chains: How platform firms use legal and spatial scaling," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(4), pages 1062-1079, June.
    5. Jonathan Beaverstock & Adam Leaver & Daniel Tischer, 2023. "How financial products organize spatial networks: Analyzing collateralized debt obligations and collateralized loan obligations as “networked productsâ€," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(4), pages 969-996, June.
    6. McWilliam, Sarah E. & Kim, Jung Kwan & Mudambi, Ram & Nielsen, Bo Bernhard, 2020. "Global value chain governance: Intersections with international business," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(4).
    7. Lotte Thomsen & Karen P.Y. Lai & Stefano Ponte, 2024. "State action and inaction in the shaping of value and wealth entanglements: The role of Singapore in the global ‘gold chain’," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(8), pages 2174-2195, November.
    8. Matti Ylönen & Ringa Raudla & Milan Babic, 2024. "From tax havens to cryptocurrencies: secrecy-seeking capital in the global economy," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(2), pages 563-588, March.
    9. Ronen Palan & Hannah Petersen & Richard Phillips, 2023. "Arbitrage spaces in the offshore world: Layering, ‘fuses’ and partitioning of the legal structure of modern firms," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(4), pages 1041-1061, June.
    10. Rex McKenzie & Rowland Atkinson & Andrea Ingianni, 2024. "Applying the global wealth chain typology to property purchases in the Liverpool and Merseyside Area," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(2), pages 367-381, March.
    11. Tilsted, Joachim Peter & Bauer, Fredric, 2024. "Connected we stand: Lead firm ownership ties in the global petrochemical industry," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    12. Florence Palpacuer & Clara Roussey, 2024. "Entangling global chains of wealth and value through CSR-ization: A critical Polanyian perspective on Weda Bay Nickel," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(8), pages 2232-2248, November.
    13. Petr Janský & Miroslav Palanský, 2019. "Estimating the scale of profit shifting and tax revenue losses related to foreign direct investment," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(5), pages 1048-1103, October.
    14. Javier Garcia-Bernardo & Jan Fichtner & Eelke M. Heemskerk & Frank W. Takes, 2017. "Uncovering Offshore Financial Centers: Conduits and Sinks in the Global Corporate Ownership Network," Papers 1703.03016, arXiv.org, revised May 2017.
    15. Garcia-Bernardo, Javier & Reurink, Arjan, 2019. "Competing with whom? European tax competition, the "great fragmentation of the firm," and varieties of FDI attraction profiles," MPIfG Discussion Paper 19/9, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    16. Jones, Chris & Temouri, Yama & Cobham, Alex, 2018. "Tax haven networks and the role of the Big 4 accountancy firms," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 177-193.
    17. Rasmus Corlin Christensen & Leonard Seabrooke & Duncan Wigan, 2022. "Professional action in global wealth chains," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(3), pages 705-721, July.
    18. Shaina Potts, 2024. "Law’s place in economic geography: Time, space, and methods," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 56(5), pages 1584-1589, August.
    19. Bhushan Praveen Jangam & Badri Narayan Rath, 2021. "Do global value chains enhance or slog economic growth?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(36), pages 4148-4165, August.
    20. Xiaofei Chen & Enru Wang & Jianfeng Guo & Changhong Miao, 2021. "Location choice and spatial distribution of the electronic information manufacturing industry in China," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(3), pages 1410-1439, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:tvecsg:v:113:y:2022:i:4:p:331-347. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0040-747X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.