Research Library

Energy fellow Rachel A. Meidl examines federal and international efforts to assess the safe transport of crude oil by rail and to specifically consider the roles of vapor pressure and volatility in accident scenarios.

There is a growing global momentum to address the critical economic and environmental problem of plastic waste management. Fellow Rachel A. Meidl discusses the key elements and causes of this problem and explores policy actions for reducing the reliance on single-use plastics.

The 2018 utility fires north of Boston revealed opportunities for PHMSA to reassess and remodel strategic enterprise operations that ensure continuous improvement and sustainability in business practices, regulation review and development, collaboration across the agency, and transparency, writes fellow Rachel A. Meidl.

On August 31, 2018, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the shared goal of accelerating and streamlining the permit application review process for proposed LNG facilities. Fellow Rachel A. Meidl explores the significance and possible impact of this MOU.

This brief explores how the alliance between Tunisia's two leading political parties — Nidaa Tounes and Ennahdha — has contributed to the Tunisian public’s growing dissatisfaction with formal politics, which has potentially dangerous consequences for the country’s democratic transition.

In this issue brief, the authors examine the amount of growth and transactional venture capital (VC) in Houston, finding the the city lacks sufficient levels of growth VC needed to support its goals of establishing a high-growth, high technology startup ecosystem.

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

While academic and popular debates tend to focus on differential benefits and costs of trade across countries or industries, this brief highlights winners and losers at the level of individual firms. The authors demonstrate that preferential liberalization produces concentrated benefits among a relatively small number of very large and productive firms.

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.