Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 12/2010

How much do U.S. corporations know (and care) about bilateral investment treaties? Some hints from new survey evidence

Jason Webb Yackee

November 2010

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

Abstract

New evidence shows that top U.S. corporations are surprisingly unfamiliar with -- and/or lack confidence in -- bilateral investment treaties that are designed to benefit their investments in other countries. To understand whether or not such treaties "work", it is necessary to find out how and why they do, or do not, form part of firms' investment decision-making.