Research Library

As the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 approaches, fellow George W.S. Abbey, former director of the Johnson Space Center, traces America's race to the moon — and describes what it took to be the first ones there.

To what extent do Moroccans view state leadership in religion favorably, or see head of state King Mohammed VI as a source of religious authority? The author examines these questions in this issue brief, produced as part of a two-year Center for the Middle East study on religious authority in the Middle East.

The author examines provisions in the USMCA for resolving investor and trade disputes among the three North American countries party to the agreement.

By providing regulated and safe access to medical cannabis to people with demonstrated need, the Texas Legislature can provide justified relief, help reduce the opioid epidemic, and save Texas millions of dollars, write the authors.

Energy fellow Rachel A. Meidl examines federal and international efforts to assess the safe transport of crude oil by rail and to specifically consider the roles of vapor pressure and volatility in accident scenarios.

This report reviews several fundamental challenges in cross-border taxation of the digital economy and presents recent developments toward revising existing laws to enable the taxation of digital companies in Europe.

Nonresident scholar Julie Cohn explores the history of the giant interconnecting machine that linked the majority of power users across the country from 1967 to 1975. Proceedings of the IEEE, Dec. 28, 2018.

Over a decade ago, the Inter-American Development Bank led an in-depth analysis of eight South American countries that profoundly influenced the understanding of political institutions and the policymaking process in Latin America. In 2018, the Baker Institute’s Latin America Initiative expanded the project to include four additional Central American countries: Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Panama. These country reports, written in Spanish, are available below. Hace casi una década, el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) impulso un análisis sobre ocho países suramericanos que influyó profundamente el entendimiento de instituciones políticas y el proceso de formulación de políticas públicas en América Latina. El Latin America Initiative del Baker Institute amplió el análisis para incluir a cuatro países de Centro América: Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador y Panamá. Estos ensayos forman parte del análisis sobre los países de Centro América.    

If the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is approved, this modified and modernized version of NAFTA will govern most economic relationships in North America. David A. Gantz, the Will Clayton Fellow in Trade and International Economics, reviews the USMCA and discusses its positive and negative elements.

Measuring the costs of corruption around the world is challenging due to varying definitions of corruption, the invisibility of many corrupt acts, and the subjectivity of perceptions. In this research paper, postdoctoral research fellow Jose I. Rodriguez-Sanchez explores the difficulties of measuring corruption in Mexico.