Publications & Documents

This report explores how institutional investors can apply risk-based due diligence as recommended by the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct and help them prevent and mitigate adverse climate impacts associated with their investee companies on society and the environment. It provides practical recommendations on how to conduct due diligence as a way to connect climate commitments at portfolio level with real-economy impacts and draws on other frameworks and tools for assessing, managing or disclosing climate impacts associated with investments.

Carbon lock-in occurs when high-emission infrastructure or assets continue to be used, despite the possibility of substituting them with low-emission alternatives, thereby delaying or preventing the transition to near-zero or zero-emission alternatives. Transition finance, which focuses on the dynamic transformation and decarbonisation of hard-to-abate sectors, frequently faces the issue of carbon lock-in, particularly in considerations of investment feasibility and eligibility. Despite most transition finance approaches incorporating lock-in avoidance as a core principle, existing transition instruments and approaches put in place varying or limited mechanisms to prevent lock-in. Building on the OECD Guidance on Transition Finance, this report takes stock of how carbon lock-in risk is addressed in existing transition finance approaches (such as taxonomies, roadmaps, or guidance), financial instruments, and relevant public and private investment frameworks and methodologies. The report provides good practices on the integration of credible mechanisms to prevent carbon lock-in, address greenwashing risks and build confidence in the market. It can inform both public and private actors in the development of transition finance approaches, standards for green, transition and sustainability-linked debt, frameworks for corporate transition plans, or broader climate-related disclosure frameworks.

Half a century after independence, Bangladesh has achieved impressive progress. The country has transformed from one of the poorest nations into a global textile manufacturing hub capable of meeting its medical needs almost entirely through domestic pharmaceutical production. The country will graduate from the least developed country (LDC) category in 2026 and aspires to be a high-income nation through industrialisation by 2041. Meeting this challenge requires accelerating economic transformation through diversification and innovation. This Production Transformation Policy Review (PTPR), implemented with the support and collaboration of the European Union (EU), and in partnership with the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), identifies concrete options for supporting Bangladesh’s development. It calls for leveraging digitalisation to address persistent fragilities and it advocates for a new pact based on shared responsibilities between the national government, the private sector and international partners to shift to a new development phase and ensure sustainable, smooth and irreversible graduation.

The OECD Corporate Governance Factbook provides easily accessible and up-to-date information on the institutional, legal and regulatory frameworks for corporate governance across 49 jurisdictions worldwide. Issued every two years, the Factbook complements the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance and serves as a useful tool to track how the Principles are being implemented. It is also actively used by governments, regulators and other stakeholders to compare national frameworks and obtain information on latest trends. Prepared in parallel to the 2023 review of the Principles, this edition takes account of the new recommendations in the Principles on sustainability, company groups, and virtual and hybrid shareholder meetings. The Factbook also highlights the latest developments in the global market and corporate ownership landscape, the role and rights of shareholders, and the duties and responsibilities of boards.

Post-war reconstruction in Ukraine will face challenges in public procurement, including corruption risks and lengthy procedures. Strengthening existing legal and institutional foundations, aligned with international standards, is crucial. Streamlining procurement, ensuring transparency, and promoting equality for domestic and foreign companies are vital. Central procurement institutions require support, extending to regional and local authorities. A transparent legal framework can pave the way for efficient and accountable procurement, enabling a resilient future. A unified legal framework for awarding all contracts for the reconstruction of Ukraine, regardless of the source of financing, would streamline the tendering process. It is recommendable that the framework, fully aligned with international standards, be based on the Ukrainian public procurement legislation. The multiplication of procedural rules and requirements would lead to an increase of the administrative burden and the time required of procurement officers as well as economic operators.

The COVID 19 pandemic has inflicted a series of shocks on the global economy, not least impacting global trade and investment. During the same time, several countries adopted new foreign direct investment (FDI) related policies. This paper presents novel preliminary evidence on the effects of these new FDI policies and COVID-19-related supply-chain disruptions on cross-border investment. It employs, among others, granular data on FDI policies and investment projects undertaken in a wide range of sectors in 175 host economies worldwide by investors from 46 home countries. It finds that a combination of FDI policies and COVID-19-related measures has a statistically significant and economically meaningful negative effect on the probability of a new cross-border greenfield investment project occurring during the sample period. The effect is the strongest in sectors with high R&D intensity.

This work delves into the liquidations mechanism inherent in Decentralised Finance (DeFi) lending protocols and the connection between liquidations and price volatility in decentralised exchanges (DEXs). The analysis employs transactional data of three of the largest DeFi lending protocols and provides evidence of a positive relation between liquidations and post-liquidations price volatility across the main DEX pools. Without directly observing the behaviour of liquidators, these findings indirectly indicate that liquidators require market liquidity to carry out large liquidations and affect market conditions while doing so.

Tax incentives such as intellectual property regimes provide for reduced taxation of the income derived from research, development, and innovation related activities. By doing so, they lower the overall tax burden from investing in certain qualified intangible assets. This paper proposes a methodology to build indicators comparing the effect of income-based tax incentives for R&D and innovation on firms’ incentives to make R&D intangible investments. It provides insights into how such incentives affect firms’ decisions on whether, where and how much to invest in R&D intangibles. These indicators are used to illustrate the extent to which these tax incentives may create potential distortions to firms’ investment, protection and commercialisation decisions. The model is further developed to account for the design changes to such tax incentives introduced by the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting minimum standard.

By 2050, the global population living in cities is projected to reach 5 billion, growing from 3.5 billion in 2015. Massive investment in infrastructure will be needed to accommodate this growth, and to adapt infrastructure to climate change and benefit from the digital transition. This report explores three ways to meet this challenge. Firstly, it outlines how new forms of urban planning can help to mobilise private finance for inclusive, resilient and sustainable urban investment. Secondly, it explores how leveraging private investment can help to strengthen cities capacity to support needed investment in a tighter fiscal environment. Finally, it considers the potential opportunities and challenges for mobilising sustainable finance – green, social and sustainable bonds and loans, sustainability-linked bonds and catastrophe bonds – for infrastructure investment by City Governments. The report also includes 17 short case studies from 12 countries that demonstrate innovative practices for creating the Cities of Tomorrow.