Voluntary initiatives in the area of corporate responsibility have been among the major trends in international business in recent years. Business surveys show that most large OECD-based multinational enterprises have participated in this trend in one way or another. These initiatives involve,...

In the ongoing public debate on globalisation, concerns have been expressed about the economic, social and environmental impacts of deepening international trade and investment ties and about the activities of the multinational enterprises. These concerns focus on a variety of issues including...

Government involvement in “voluntary” initiatives for corporate responsibility has been extensive. This chapter reviews four main types of involvement -- legal and regulatory incentives, tax expenditures on the NGO sector, contributions to compliance expertise and moral suasion. The most...

Many companies have implemented programmes that help them to respond to societal concerns about the economic, social and environmental impacts of their activities. These help them to manage their compliance with legal or regulatory requirements and their response to “softer” forms of social...

Based on a slight extension of the inventory of 233 codes of corporate conduct collected for an earlier study (TD/TC/WP(98)74/FINAL), this paper takes a more in-depth look at the contents of the codes with respect to issue coverage and code implementation procedures. The main findings of this...

The international business community’s anti-corruption efforts are essential parts of broader systems for fighting corrupt business practices. These also include formal law enforcement, where an appropriate regulatory framework is already in place, and regulatory and other public sector...

Bilateral and regional investment agreements have proliferated in the last decade and new ones are still being negotiated. Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) clauses link investment agreements by ensuring that the parties to one treaty provide treatment no less favourable than the treatment they provide...

The present note summarises the main findings of the research conducted under the auspices of the OECD/MOFTEC Co-operation Programme on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) between the fall 1999 and the spring 2000 on Main Determinants and Impacts of FDI on China’s Economy. The OECD/MOFTEC...