Research Library

This paper addresses the role of both the private sector and the public sector in altering Houston’s current situation relative to flooding.

Faculty scholar Jim Blackburn proposes a series of realistic ideas that can substantially reduce misery and damage the next time a catastrophic storm like Harvey tears through the Houston-Galveston area. 

NAFTA has neither been the enormous success that its supporters believe, nor the disaster that its detractors claim. Renegotiating NAFTA — or even threatening to repeal it — is not a high-stakes proposition. The treaty simply does not possess the leverage to deliver a major boost or setback to the U.S. manufacturing sector. 

As China continues to open up to the transnational circulation of labor, ideas, technology and capital under globalization, one must wonder: will Chinese society’s more cosmopolitan and transnational groups continue to be guided by guanxi, the system of social networks and influential relationships that facilitate business and other dealings?

Authors Tony Payan and Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera lay out how Mexico must anticipate and resolve potential problems in organized crime, corruption and natural resource allocation priorities in order to successfully implement its energy reforms.

This research paper examines the potential market for a system that would pay landowners to restore natural ecosystems, such as native prairies and oyster reefs, that protect the Gulf Coast from hurricane and severe storm damage.

This paper argues that the Texas social studies curriculum does not offer balanced coverage of world religions, due in large part to intervention by conservative members of the Texas State Board of Education. The paper identifies examples of imbalanced coverage in social studies texts and offers recommendations for broadening coverage of religion in Texas public schools.

What structural and nonstructural solutions could better protect the Houston-Galveston area from the devastating impact of hurricanes and severe storms? Baker Institute fellows Jim Blackburn and Regina Buono studied the issue from legal, policy and governmental perspectives.

Mexico Center director Tony Payan considers whether citizens and the government should together combat organized crime in Mexico.

Using a public health approach to study drug-related murders on the U.S.-Mexico border, the authors conclude the region is experiencing a "violence epidemic."