Research Library

The recently released National Climate Assessment documents the accelerating rate of climate change caused by human activities, leading to extensive and damaging impacts. The report represents scientific findings on the state of climate change in the United States, summarized in a way that is accessible to its intended audience: the president, members of Congress, and the American people, writes Ron Sass, fellow in global climate change. Will the U.S. Congress respond actively to the report rather than do nothing, as it has in the past? Sass is not sure, but writes that “it is up to the American people to inform themselves and then vote into power those who have the ability and desire to understand the seriousness of the changing climate and are willing to work together to confront it.”

Fossil fuel subsidies have allowed energy exporting countries to distribute resource revenue, bolstering legitimacy for governments, many of which are not democratically elected. But subsidy benefits are dwarfed by the harmful consequences of encouraging uneconomic use of energy. Now, with consumption posing a threat to long-term exports, governments face a heightened need to raise prices that have come to be viewed as entitlements. While reforms of state benefits are notoriously politically dangerous, previous experience shows that subsidies can be rolled back without undermining government legitimacy — even in autocratic settings — given proper preparation.

Microfinance institutions have continued to grow over the past few decades, enabling greater access to credit in many of the world's less developed nations. However, in many Muslim countries, the poor tend to reject microfinance on religious grounds. This paper develops an alternative microfinance model that is Islamically permissible and tests it against the standard model.

The Academy of Arts and Sciences released a special report on keeping the U.S. at the forefront of scientific and engineering research on Sept. 16.

There is a curious imbalance in energy markets in the Persian Gulf region: Five of the six Gulf monarchies exhibit shortages in domestic supply of natural gas. Meanwhile, Qatar holds the world's third-largest conventional reserves and is the world's No. 2 gas exporter. Why is Qatar, given its enormous resources and relatively small domestic needs, unwilling to supply gas sufficient to meet its neighbors' demand?

Despite mounting efforts toward achieving gender equality, the MENA region continues to rank the lowest worldwide in women’s economic participation and opportunity.

Political science fellow Mark Jones offers insight to the March 4 Texas primaries.

The situation in Ukraine is the most serious foreign policy challenge ever faced by the Obama administration, writes Rice faculty scholar Richard Stoll.

By Rehman Bhalesha

Jury nullification — when a jury disagrees with the law and acquits a defendant they believe to be…

Many contemporary medical ethicists dismiss the centuries-old Hippocratic Oath as outdated because of the enormous scientific, social, economic, and political changes since Hippocrates' time. Health policy scholar Hagop Kantarjian makes a case for its relevance.