Research Library

The authors review the impact of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a government initiative that allowed small businesses to apply for low-interest loans during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the PPP helped cover employment-related expenses and mitigated unemployment for some businesses, it remained inaccessible to others, they conclude.

The author reviews four scenarios that could develop as the dispute over Turkey's purchase of a Russian-made missile defense system continues.

Women in Egypt achieved a historic increase in their legislative representation in 2015, securing 14.9 percent of seats in parliament. In this brief, Cairo University professor Mazen Hassan analyzes transcripts of parliamentary sessions to determine whether this increase in female parliamentarians had a noticeable impact on Egypt’s legislative agenda.

The PJD's pragmatic politics — intended to maintain the king’s support and appeal to heterogeneous constituencies — failed to protect the party from fragmentation and moves to weaken it.

This brief explores how a quirk in the measurement of women’s labor force participation and the demographic peculiarities of the Persian Gulf have resulted in the significant undercounting of female citizen labor in the Gulf Cooperation Council. I

In this brief, the authors examine the link between oil and female labor force participation in the Middle East and North Africa.

Despite enviable increases in educational attainment, women in the MENA countries may fare less well in attaining a form of social capital integral to their ability to exercise full political, economic and social agency: wasta — loosely, clout, or using one’s connections and/or influence to get things done.