The toll of Lebanon's dual governance system weighs heavily on the state and its governance structure. The author examines the current need to formalize the country's informal senate.
This brief sets out some of the major structural reforms to taxes, subsidies, and debt issuance in the GCC that are shifting financial burdens from the state to its citizens and residents.
This paper proposes a new regulatory incentive mechanism to induce efficient investment in electricity transmission networks. Energy Economics: http://bit.ly/2PeCEpu
By Alanoud Al Sharekh, Ph.D., University of London
Kuwait’s economy has been stagnant over the past decade due to political instability, fluctuating oil prices, and endemic corruption. To combat this situation, Kuwait has attempted to develop a robust business sector through fundamental policy shifts away from monopolies and toward the creation of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Alanoud Al Sharekh explores Kuwaiti SME development in an issue brief and a longer research paper, which are part of a series on pluralism and inclusion in the Middle East after the Arab Spring. The project is generously supported by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The authors analyze the carbon emission, energy market and economic implications of carbon tax proposal introduced by U.S. Rep. Carlos Corbels (R-Florida). The working paper was released as part of a collaboration between Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, the Rhodium Group and the Baker Institute.
Building on the experiences of Hurricane Harvey, the authors present a summary of flooding issues in Harris County and discuss proposed local and federal projects in preparation for the upcoming flood bond election in August 2018.
Since the progressivity of the sales tax is difficult to directly measure, this paper introduces an indirect approach combining simulated household income with realizations of consumption behavior from survey data.
Public finance fellow John Diamond and Rice faculty scholar George Zodrow analyze the short- and long-term economic effects of a federal carbon tax in the United States.