Gun violence takes an enormous toll on neighborhoods and their residents in important ways. While research has identified that violence makes neighborhoods less appealing and livable, few studies have fully quantified the effect of violence on neighborhoods’ vitality and dynamism. In this study, we introduce the notion of ‘neighborhood activity,’ which we measure by the unique number of everyday visitors those neighborhoods receive from residents of other neighborhoods. Drawing on a large geographically-coded dataset of 30,000 gun violence

Journal of Industrial Relations Under capitalism, workers have two sources of power: associational and structural. A vast body of social science research shows that workers’ power—often measured by union density—is associated with lower levels of income inequality. Drawing on a country-level, panel dataset for much of the post-World War II era (1960–2013), the author introduces a model of distributive outcomes that centers on the dual sources of workers’ associational and structural power. By differentiating the

In the past five decades, the Middle Eastern oil producers have had the least manufacturing and industrial share in their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Oil and gas nonetheless, continue to account for more than 60 percent of GDP in almost every resource-based economy in the Middle East. However, amid the numerous resource-based economies worldwide, Norway has managed to stand out. It is the singular oil-producer country that has successfully embarked on economic diversification despite its

Iran’s historic nuclear deal with six major world powers was hailed by all parties involved in the negotiating table. But this deal has also raised the question of how Iran’s relations with its neighbors—especially Saudi Arabia—would evolve next.  In the past few weeks, Saudi Arabia has joined Israel as a voice of opposition to a deal between Iran and the West. As Thomas Friedman accurately observed, now that Iran has established its own relationship with the

Every motorized country has a symbolic car that is viewed as the emblem of its thriving auto industry. In Germany it was the Volkswagen; in America, the Cadillac; in South Korea, the Kia; and in Japan, the Toyota. Iran, too, has its own iconic car: the Paykan, which means “arrow.” Based on the defunct British Hillman Hunter, it was first exported to Iran in 1967. The homely Paykan fell far short of the world-class Japanese