Investment treaty law – which is scattered over 3 000 international investment agreements adopted over a period of 50 years – is a crucial but complex basis for regulating international investment flows. Investment treaties are often thought to be silent on investors’ responsibilities to...

This paper explores the differences, similarities and synergies between voluntary and binding approaches to international rules. Voluntary efforts to ensure that firms adhere to appropriate standards of business conduct have been an important recent development in international business. These...

The OECD Guidelines are recommendations by governments to multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in or from the 33 countries that adhere to the Guidelines. The Guidelines help ensure that MNEs act in harmony with the policies of countries in which they operate and with societal expectations....

Emerging market companies make up 3.8 per cent of the FT500, the 500 largest global traded companies1 and 4.6 per cent of the Dow Jones Global Index of 2,500 companies. OECD statistics show that, while the bulk of international investment flows originate in the OECD, non-OECD countries are...

Bribery is becoming a high priority public concern and the legal framework and enforcement apparatus used in the fight against it are being developed in the OECD and elsewhere. Reflecting these civic and legal pressures, firms now often deal with bribery in their codes of corporate conduct –...

This paper presents marginal effective tax rates (METRs) for a number of physical and intangible assets and for a number of funding sources. The assets include machinery, buildings, inventories, investments in short-lived R&D (that is, investments whose returns last only a few years) and in...

The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (the “Guidelines”) are one of many intergovernmental instruments that seek to promote economic, social and environmental progress. The OECD Guidelines do this by establishing concepts and principles for responsible business conduct that help...

There have been a number of tax reforms in Switzerland in recent years aimed at enhancing economic efficiency and equity. This paper sets these reforms in the context of the forces shaping tax policy in Switzerland and the main features of the Swiss tax system and suggests areas where further...