Research Library

Though drops in oil prices stand to impact Saudi Arabia’s economic stability, the government has turned to drawing down its foreign reserves and issuing bonds to alleviate budgetary pressures and avoid drastic domestic spending cuts. Fellow for the Middle East Kristian Coates Ulrichsen writes in the Baker Institute Blog: http://bit.ly/1fKLWG9.

How do dynamic analysis and dynamic scoring affect fiscal policymaking? Fellow John Diamond presents his views at a U.S. Joint Economic Committee hearing.

While the recent fiscal troubles in Greece have received much attention, the U.S. fiscal position is hardly comparable to that of Greece. However, the United States is experiencing, and will continue to experience, one of the fundamental economic costs of relatively large and persistent deficits.

As the BRICS hold their seventh summit in Ufa, Russia this week, international economics fellow Russell Green and Rice student Elisabeth Kalomeris offer advice on designing the framework for the organization’s New Development Bank.

In a July 5 referendum, Greeks overwhelmingly rejected the terms of a bailout proposed by international creditors. Baker Institute Rice scholar Ted Temzelides blogs on the surprisingly strong vote against the rescue package, and what may lie ahead.

As the implementation of Mexico’s historic energy reform gets underway, the debate has tended to overlook a key question at the intersection of technology and the new legislation: How can Mexico create an institutional framework supported by policies, laws and organizations to facilitate technology transfers and foster local innovation? Simply put, how will international oil companies transfer technology to Mexican companies and research facilities?

As Congress resumes work this spring on a bill granting Trade Promotion Authority to President Obama for completion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, many members have sought inclusion of a chapter on currency manipulation. Currency manipulation is a legitimate concern. However, countermeasures require clear, objective identification of currency manipulation. Both the IMF and the U.S. Treasury Department have mandates to identify currency manipulation, yet neither has done so in the past 20 years. If it can be done, why has it not happened more often? In this issue brief, Russell Green, Will Clayton Fellow in International Economics, reviews the difficulties of operationalizing a currency manipulation chapter and argues that the difficulty of identifying currency manipulation suggests serious political obstacles to implementation.

Part 2 of a two-part blog on China’s economy. Part 1 can be found here.

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Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is starting her second term in office facing economic and political problems that feed into each other. These problems can be attributed to a large extent to mistakes her administration made during her first term. Rousseff’s macroeconomic policy proved to be inconsistent, and the choices she made in some key economic sectors, especially energy, were demonstrably disastrous. Rousseff now faces the enormous challenge of reconciling the leftwing populism that led her to victory with the inescapable need to regain the trust of the most dynamic sectors of Brazilian society, including the private sector.

This year marks a turning point in Argentinian politics now that Cristina Fernández de Kirchner lacks the constitutional possibility of being reelected. And with the party system fragmented as it is, no candidate has a clear victory.