Research Library

Baker Institute Rice faculty scholar Luz M. Garcini and co-authors analyze existing research on the compounded stressors and health risks faced by undocumented Latino older adults in the United States. Using a Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) lens, they examine the environments, conditions, and social structures that influence health risks, and provide policy and advocacy recommendations to address the issues.

This paper examines the evolution of academic research on the effects of the property tax over the past 75 years, with a special emphasis on articles that have appeared in the National Tax Journal over that time period.

Armed conflicts in the Middle East and Europe and a strained relationship with China mean that U.S. foreign policy is currently operating in crisis mode. Fellow Joe Barnes discusses the many challenges we face and how multiple issues are contributing to this perfect storm.

When the OPEC+ group met last week and agreed to extend production cuts through the first quarter of 2024, the market was unimpressed. Fellow in Energy and Global Oil, Mark Finley, outlines the meeting’s outcomes and discusses why the recent agreement “could augur a year of difficult meetings ahead” in a new commentary.

To build brain resilience and compete effectively, America needs to re-double its efforts to boost its domestic brain capital i.e., social, emotional, and cognitive resources.

Almost all of the progress the U.S. has made toward its Paris Agreement target for 2025 has come from falling CO2 emissions from energy use. But greater declines in other greenhouse gas emissions are needed to reach our goal, writes fellow Mark Finley.

Elizabeth M. Mendoza offers nine commonsense actions Congress can take to provide immigration relief and protect U.S. national and economic security.

Republicans are ready to support Israel. But what about Ukraine? As the war between Israel and Hamas intensifies, fellow Joe Barnes examines the shifting focus of U.S. foreign policy and what it means for Kyiv.

The work of Katalin Karikó, 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine recipient, laid a foundation for the development of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines that saved close to 20 million lives worldwide. But her discoveries almost did not happen, writes Alicia L. Johnson, a civic science postdoctoral associate at the Baker Institute Center for Health and Biosciences. Karikó’s story highlights the vital importance of supporting women in STEM.

As China appears ever closer to attempting a coercive annexation of Taiwan, this report explores how such a move could trigger a chain of nuclear proliferation — potentially adding thousands more warheads to stockpiles globally.