The energy transition process depends on investments in clean technologies to cut down carbon emissions in various sectors of the economy. In a new working paper, visiting research fellow Osamah Alsayegh focuses on Arab Gulf states as a case study and proposes policies to mitigate the potential negative impacts of the transition process on affected sectors.
How much can demographic changes account for trends in the U.S. economy? This paper shows that a heterogeneous-agent, overlapping-generations model with historical demographic flows can generate several features of the U.S. economy over the past several decades, including a secular decline in economic growth, a rise in savings relative to GDP, a corresponding decline in real interest rates, and, in part, changes in wealth inequality.
The authors conduct a step-by-step examination of various factors that were blamed for the extended power outage on the ERCOT electricity grid in February 2021. While no single factor fully explains the calamity, the bureaucratic failure in identifying and addressing risks along fuel supply chains was a major failure. Most proposed remedies do not fundamentally address what occurred. The authors make several recommendations, some of which have already been implemented.
Peter R. Hartley, Kenneth B. Medlock III, Shih Yu (Elsie) HungFebruary 2, 2022
Texas is the source of about one-quarter of all energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the US industrial sector and about one-eighth of all CO2 emissions from the US power generation sector, with a significant proportion of emissions in both sectors located near the gulf coast. As such, Texas has the opportunity to capture significant economies of scale in carbon capture.
Kenneth B. Medlock III, Keily MillerJanuary 27, 2021
A working group led by the Baker Institute has developed an innovative measurement-based standard — “BCarbon” — for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil as organic carbon. BCarbon is a scalable soil carbon storage standard designed to work for landowners and soil carbon storage buyers. The proposed standard allows landowners to monetize soil carbon storage as a property right.
Kenneth B. Medlock III, Jim BlackburnNovember 2, 2020
The authors explore the history of the resource curse and provide summarize the working paper series titled “The Role of Foreign Direct Investment in Resource-Rich Regions.”
Kenneth B. Medlock III, Keily MillerFebruary 24, 2020
The authors evaluate Argentina’s energy sector and test the hypothesis that investments in tight oil and shale gas extraction expose investors to fewer risks than extracting conventional oil and gas.
This working paper is part of a series titled “The Role of Foreign Direct Investment in Resource-Rich Regions.”
Gabriel Collins, Mark P. Jones, Jim Krane, Kenneth B. Medlock III, Francisco J. MonaldiFebruary 24, 2020
Given that policymakers will eventually need to decide how to resolve the social security program’s projected shortfall, this paper presents a simulation-based approach to evaluating the conventional alternatives of adjustments to benefits or taxes.