New Books in Economics Kimberly Kay Hoang, "Spiderweb Capitalism: How Global Elites Exploit Frontier Markets" (Princeton UP, 2022)
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Oct 17, 2022 Kimberly Kay Hoang, Sociology professor at the University of Chicago and director of the Global Studies Program, unpacks how offshore networks route elite money into risky frontier markets. She describes the intermediaries, layered fund structures, investment tours, and the moral gray zones that make these flows possible. Stories span Cayman funds to deals in Vietnam and Myanmar.
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What Spiderweb Capitalism Means
- Spiderweb capitalism describes complex, multi-jurisdictional webs of paper companies that channel investments from developed economies into frontier markets.
- Kimberly Kay Hoang shows these webs are hard to quantify and rely on people and intermediaries to create and sustain markets.
Immersive Fieldwork Mapping The Web
- Hoang traveled over 350,000 miles and interviewed more than 300 people to trace how offshore entities link Hong Kong, Singapore, and Caribbean havens to Vietnam and Myanmar.
- She followed fund managers, lawyers, company secretaries, and ultra high net worth individuals to map these webs.
The Logic Of Playing In The Gray
- "Playing in the gray" means exploiting the boundary where laws differ across jurisdictions to front-run regulation and markets.
- Hoang argues this behavior is systemic, not the action of isolated villains, and moves with regulatory shifts.
