Research Library

The elections that will be held in Cuba on April 19 undoubtedly represents the most important election since 1979 — for the first time in nearly 60 years, someone from outside the Castro family will lead the country. Although the change at the top of the Cuban regime may not constitute a radical change in the political system, the symbolic significance of a post-Castro era cannot be overstated, write the authors in a new post for the Baker Institute Blog.

McNair Center director Edward J. Egan discusses venture capital in testimony to House Small Business and Economic Development Committee.

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 report uses data to examine venture capital investment in the United States for 2016 and generate a ranking for the top 100 U.S. startup cities in 2016. The overall rankings are based on equally weighting the amount growth venture capital invested, the number of new venture capital deals, and the number of active VC-backed startups in each city.

Houston and Harris County area law enforcement leaders weigh in on the need for drug policy reforms in the United States.

The authors investigate whether stance of a religious tradition toward capitalism will help shape individual scientists’ views on science commercialization and whether the religious tradition of scientists correlates with their attitude toward the commercialization of science.

Recent academic research has shown that startup training institutions can greatly increase the number of startup firms receiving seed and early-stage venture capital for the first time. In this paper, the authors examine the startup training institutions in Houston, and what they are doing to open up the city’s pipeline of startups.

An intrinsic element of Mexico's 2013-2014 energy reform was the promise that transfers of technology required to exploit the country's hydrocarbons would take place. This paper analyzes the extent to which this has actually happened and proposes policies that could foster innovation in the energy sector in Mexico.

The federal government will need a nuanced approach to properly stimulate small business growth. However, a core focus should be on creating a level playing field for community banks to compete to provide small business loans.