Research Library

The impending demise of petrodollar-supported capitalist Islamism, the failures of which begat 21st century terrorist Islamism, incentivizes the Muslim middle class and timocracies to find another outlet for Muslim liberation theology. This amplifies manifold the risks (and potential, but limited, benefits) of “Islamic finance.”  

In an economy with heterogeneous firms and heterogeneous consumers, the authors describe a general equilibrium where firm equity is priced by a supply and demand process. With a model robust to arbitrary, nonlinear tax functions, they investigate the efficiency of replacing the current U.S. tax regime with a policy of no corporate taxes and taxation of capital distributions to the household at progressive personal income tax rates.

This paper examines the cash flow and financial issues affecting Venezuela’s PDVSA, as well as the operational challenges facing the country’s oil industry.

This working paper analyzes three key factors that characterize the “new normal” of China’s oil demand: slowing overall demand growth, gasoline replacing diesel as the demand driver, and a substantial rise in refined products exports.

In this working paper, energy fellow Jim Krane examines the risks the fossil fuel industry faces as a result of climate mitigation strategies.

This working paper analyzes the roots of Iran’s “dissonant” political system and revolutionary ideology, the fractious contest over defining and applying this ideology, and the implications of these struggles for Iranian foreign and security policy.

This working paper analyzes the prospects of Iran changing its domestic and foreign policy behavior over the longer term, and outlines what the United States and others can do to promote such changes.

This working paper examines whether Iran has become more moderate in domestic and foreign policy affairs as a result of the Iran nuclear deal.

This working paper discusses the “pattern of wary engagement” between Russia and Iran and its implications for future regional security issues in the Middle East. The paper was presented as part of the "U.S.-Iran Relations at a Crossroads" conference at the Baker Institute.

In this working paper, fellow John Diamond and Rice faculty scholar George Zodrow describe the Diamond-Zodrow model, which simulates the macroeconomic effects of corporate income tax reform proposals.