Research Library

With two corporate groups dominating Mexico's television sector, the country’s 2014 telecommunications reform established constitutional “must carry” and “must offer” (MC/MO) regulations. These regulations mandate that free-to-air broadcasters must allow pay TV companies to retransmit in the same coverage area without payment (must offer) and that pay TV companies must provide audiences with these free-to-air broadcasts without passing fees along to subscribers (must carry). While the reform legislation places rhetorical importance on promoting culturally diverse and pluralistic content for all broadcast audiences, there is little substantive commitment to these ideals. The Mexican variation of MC/MO is an ad hoc policy with many flaws. Ultimately, the Supreme Court will determine the future of MC/MO in Mexico. Given the reform’s legal framework, however, content diversity and pluralism will not be enhanced by MC/MO in Mexico.

This paper investigates how new potential and proposed regulations will influence the natural gas market in the United States in the coming decades, using the Rice World Gas Trade Model (RWGTM) to examine scenarios in which domestic natural gas development is stressed in a variety of ways. It considers a range of possible policy actions from the federal to the local level.

In this paper, author Peter Hartley examines the recent evolution of markets for LNG, focusing especially on the increasing amount of LNG being traded spot or under short-term contracts of less than four-years duration. Hartley argues that explanations for this increase, and other recent changes in LNG trading, imply that the proportion of LNG being traded under long-term contracts is likely to continue to decline and that the flexibility of long-term contracts for trading LNG is likely to continue to increase.

The United States and Cuba, it seems, are poised to resume diplomatic relations severed in 1961. Fellow Joe Barnes explains why normalization of relations between the two countries is simple "good sense." Read "Normalizing U.S.-Cuban relations: Long overdue" in the Dec. 18, 2014, Baker Institute Blog.

In this study, Al Troner reviews, analyzes, and tracks the changes that have emerged in US oil and gas over recent years, and surveys the implications of modification, or full abolition, of the decades-long US crude oil export ban.

The human papillomavirus (HPV) affects over 80 million Americans, causing more than 40,000 cases of HPV-associated cancers in the U.S. In 2006, the FDA licensed the first HPV vaccine, which could help save thousands of lives; no cure for HPV currently exists. However, the political controversy raised by the vaccine has limited its acceptance and use. Such resistance potentially jeopardizes an opportunity to reduce cancer rates in Texas and the broader United States.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement offers an opportunity to deepen U.S.-Mexico economic ties without reopening the still contentious North American Free Trade Agreement for negotiation. It may also serve as a vehicle for advancing the current Mexican government’s economic reform agenda. The leaders of the U.S. and Mexico believe that the TPP will bolster domestic economic growth.

Academic mobility is critical for robust collaborations in education, research and innovation between the U.S. and Mexico. Governments in both countries, in cooperation with nongovernmental actors, should provide a framework to develop mechanisms that generate and sustain a meaningful exchange of students, faculty, and staff from educational institutions at all levels of post-secondary education.

Marijuana decriminalization and legalization have gone past being a trend and are settling in as federal policy, writes nonresident fellow Gary Hale, a 31-year veteran of the Drug Enforcement Administration. This policy brief includes recommendations for how the DEA can adjust its policies to adopt a new paradigm on marijuana policy.