Research Library

Baker Institute Rice Faculty Scholar and University Professor Moshe Vardi analyzes three recent crises — the 2021 winter storm in Texas, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Boeing 737 Max software failure — that highlight the cost of valuing efficiency over resilience and provide lessons for bringing society into balance.

This report explores Houston's substantial comparative advantage in finding and developing low-carbon solutions and creating opportunities to efficiently and effectively deploy the region’s vast resources to produce and deliver cleaner, greener fuels to the nation and the world.

Advanced recycling of plastics can help the U.S. achieve sustainability goals and a climate-neutral, circular economy.

In late January 2021, the stock price of GameStop skyrocketed, causing the online trading platform Robinhood to suspend sales of its stock. What happened, and what tax policies are being proposed as a result? Public finance fellow Joyce Beebe explains on the Baker Institute Blog.

In this brief, public finance fellow Jorge Barro explains some of the long-term economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and argues that policymakers can prepare for the impending macroeconomic shortfalls by maintaining a commitment to improving education, prioritizing immigration and resolving fiscal imbalances.

If the U.S. is to create a resilient energy supply chain and securitize its own needs for the energy transition, it should be more proactive in resource and supply chain development in Latin America. The author explains why.

Integrating a life-cycle dimension into future policies to assess the social, environmental and economic implications of various products across their life cycle and throughout their value chain is critical to achieving sustainability and a circular economy, writes Rachel A. Meidl, fellow in energy and environment.

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

Rachel A. Meidl, the fellow in energy and environment, writes that investing in nanotechnology research and development is critical for future decarbonization strategies that can drive U.S. leadership in the clean energy revolution, reduce dependencies on foreign markets, yield economic and national security advantages, and enhance environmental justice and energy independence.

With the cost of virgin plastic directly affected by oil and natural gas prices, the global plastics economy is highly vulnerable to shocks. The authors argue that in order to advance sustainability and solve existential crises like resource depletion and the environmental and social impacts of climate change, high-income countries should take the lead on the development of transparent, closed loops for plastics. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25613/JXVH-K250