Research Library

Six years after Hurricane Harvey deluged the Texas Gulf Coast, how exposed are Houston and Harris County to flooding risk? Jim Blackburn and Jennifer Borski examine key challenges and changes needed going forward.

In an extension of an earlier analysis prepared for the American Action Forum, the authors use the Diamond-Zodrow computable general equilibrium model of the U.S. economy to simulate the macroeconomic effects of a 10-year fiscal plan financed by tax changes proposed by Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign.

In this paper, authors examine the concerns raised by a new wealth tax and analyze the economic effects of the tax using a computable general equilibrium model.

This report details analyses and findings from the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Houston’s Fall 2019 academic semester of Texas ACETM programming, and provides perspectives on its transition to alternate programming in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

When states report an increase in Covid-19 cases, Google searches for mental health-related issues also increase, often significantly, the authors find. Their analysis of Google trends data, which is posted in Advance Social Science and Humanities, recommends that policymakers prepare for greater mental health needs in the event a predicted resurgence of Covid-19 becomes a reality.

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.

A numerical simulation of the macroeconomic effects of the House Republican Tax Reform plan, using the Diamond-Zodrow model, suggests that its net macroeconomic effects would be positive.

The authors examine the potential dynamic fiscal effects of revising or completely eliminating the home mortgage interest deduction.

This paper examines the effects of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a one-time retroactive British “Windfall Tax” levied on 32 public utilities that were privatized between 1984 and 1996 was eligible for the US foreign tax credit (FTC). The decision could have far-reaching implications for the creditability of taxes that are not ordinarily thought to be income taxes, including various cash-flow business taxes that are key elements of several proposals recommending replacement of the income tax with a consumption-based tax.

The positive effects of a corporate income tax reform in the United States might well be enhanced by a simultaneous move to a territorial system coupled with anti-base erosion provisions designed to limit revenue losses; however, the effects of implementing territoriality are tenuous and seem likely to be small in the aggregate. Published by the American Action Forum.