Research Library

Rapid urbanization and expansion of cities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has created new opportunities — along with environmental risks, lack of financial and natural resources, and social disparity. In a new issue brief, visiting research scholar Osamah Alsayegh explores how developing smart sustainable cities can bring social and economic benefits to the growing urban population.

This issue brief highlights the potential collaboration between Arab countries and China in dealing with the global energy transition, and examines the energy transition from the perspectives of the world's largest economy (China) and richest hydrocarbon region (the Middle East).

In the wake of the collapse of Terra — a once-prosperous blockchain network that suffered one of the biggest falls in the history of cryptocurrency — the authors discuss recent government efforts to regulate digital assets.

This brief examines the four economic pillars that are often credited with bolstering Mexico’s economy in 2019 and 2020 to determine how quickly the nation's economy will bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jose Ivan Rodriguez-Sanchez, the postdoctoral research fellow in international trade for the Center for the U.S. and Mexico, analyzes the economic impact of COVID-19 travel restrictions on the tourism industry of Texas border counties, many of which depend on Mexicans entering the U.S. and spending billions of dollars each year.

Corruption is a complex social, political and institutional problem that is difficult to define. This brief describes the challenges involved in defining, understanding and measuring corruption and evaluates the case study of Mexico, where corruption has increased in recent years, to illustrate these complexities.