Research Library

The American food supply chain is at risk due to increased farmworker shortages. This new brief explains the issues and suggests policy options to meet the needs of, and for, these vital workers.

Regulating firearms under the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA) — just like any other product — could enhance their safety, writes fellow Sandra McKay. She explains how the CPSA could investigate misfirings and require safety information to be distributed with every gun sale.

Hostile immigration enforcement policies and anti-immigrant actions against refugees and asylum seekers are causing trauma to migrant families and exposing them to dangerous living conditions on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The layered and intersectional implications of Lebanon's current political and economic crisis have been felt hardest by the country’s most vulnerable and marginalized communities — predominantly the country’s millions of refugees and migrants.

As the pandemic persisted across the state, did Texans living in cities have better access to Covid-19 vaccines than those in rural areas? How did race or age factor in? The authors assess the successes and shortfalls of Texas' vaccine distribution strategy, and how to do better next time.

As the judicial battle over Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates continues, the authors argue that the most effective way to protect children from COVID-19 is to require masks in schools. Click below for their full list of policy recommendations, including what exceptions should be made, and when and how to end school mask requirements.

The space station is an outstanding model for international cooperation by the world's nations. Similarly, cooperation can advance many other areas of science and technology through shared expertise and costs, and the pursuit of complementary efforts.

The author draws links between pandemics, the economy, nature and energy, showing that policies reducing the probability of future pandemics are a solid investment.

If the global economy is to recover after the pandemic, the United States must reestablish mutually beneficial economic relations with China. But the new administration should be careful to resist unrestrained Chinese "soft power" influence on our education, research and creative industries.

Two federal income tax incentives for business investment are scheduled to end after 2021 and 2022, just as the small business sector will be recovering from the economic downturn of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this policy brief, Jennifer Rabb and Lisa Lin of the McNair Center propose that Congress, under the leadership of the new Biden administration, should extend these tax incentives to bolster the recovery of small businesses.