We have investigated the structural aspects of several carbon dioxide molecular aggregates and their spectroscopic and nonlinear optical properties within the quantum chemical theory framework. We find that, although the single carbon dioxide molecule prefers to be in a linear geometry, the puckering of angles occur in oligomers because of the intermolecular interactions. The resulting dipole moments reflect in the electronic excitation spectra of the molecular assemblies. The observation of significant nonlinear optical properties suggests the potential application of the dense carbon dioxide phases in opto-electronic devices.