Research Library

Despite a cap on Houston’s property tax collections, these taxes have outpaced population growth and inflation, writes fellow John W. Diamond. This issue brief examines the rise in property tax revenues and proposes strategies for maintaining a sustainable city budget.

By respecting, valuing, and nurturing the brain health of asylum seekers and refugees, we can build healthier, more resilient communities.

Can urban design impact our brain health? This issue brief explores how cities can be redesigned to improve our mental well-being and promote healthy aging.

With the 2023 debt-ceiling negotiations under way, a new issue brief from John Diamond, director of the Center for Public Finance, and Autumn Engebretson looks at the effectiveness of the Budget Control Act 2011, enacted in response to the 2011 debt-ceiling crisis. Did it in fact control the budget? And could similar legislation work now?

The authors examine the investments, trade-offs and broad policy changes necessary to reimagine the U.S. health care delivery system.

This brief explores the Trump administration's policy toward Iran and analyzes the ways in which it differs from that of the Obama administration.

Rising health care costs and generational attitudes toward convenience and the ability to personalize life choices are driving a trend toward greater individual responsibility over the use of health care services.

This month, the Syrian Civil War will have lasted seven years. The authors of this brief explore how the United States — first under President Barack Obama and now under President Donald Trump — has struggled to develop a coherent strategy that balances U.S. interests in the conflict with the military, financial and diplomatic resources necessary to pursue them.

Brazil's economy is among those most closed to foreign trade. Debate on trade policy has returned to the political agenda, but domestic and international circumstances do not currently favor reform. This brief discusses the outlook for trade policy reform in Brazil during President Michel Temer's term and the challenges that will be faced by any succeeding government.

This issue brief examines the various foreign policy strategies advanced by Worker’s Party-led administrations in Brazil since 2003. The brief also analyzes the current political and economic crises that have increased strain on the party’s leaders.