Research Library

Progress on the UN’s sustainable development goals — aimed at achieving peace and prosperity for all people and the planet — has been slow. However, fellow Harris A. Eyre and his co-authors explain how applying a brain capital framework could change the trajectory.

How can Texas secure an affordable, sustainable, and reliable power supply for all its citizens? This report explores key insights from research conducted at Rice University.

Six years after Hurricane Harvey deluged the Texas Gulf Coast, how exposed are Houston and Harris County to flooding risk? Jim Blackburn and Jennifer Borski examine key challenges and changes needed going forward.

Truth-in-taxation measures, which are intended to serve taxpayers, have failed to constrain the property tax burden in Texas, write Jennifer Rabb and Lebena Varghese of the McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth. They argue that it is incumbent upon the government to make tax rate notices clear, relevant and above all truthful.

Texas has long been an economic leader, but the state lags critically in a major area: health. A new report by M.D. candidate Kushal T. Kadakia and nonresident scholar Anaeze C. Offodile II offers a road map for improving Texas’ health rankings by 10 spots in 10 years.

Jim Blackburn, co-director of Rice’s SSPEED Center and a Baker Institute Rice faculty scholar, examines what the city of Houston has done to prepare for flooding and other extreme weather events brought about by climate change since Hurricane Harvey struck Houston more than three years ago.

In this study, the authors surveyed students in 80 Harris County schools, as well as their parents, to identify external factors that influence academic performance, particularly among students living in poverty. Their findings can be broadly used to better understand the unmet needs of students under current systems of support, and to develop solutions that can give every child an opportunity to succeed.

This paper outlines proposals that integrate economic development and nature to address our region’s flood problems, as well as structural solutions that serve multiple purposes.

The authors use survey and interview data to evaluate drug treatment options available through the court diversion process for people charged with drug offenses in Harris County, Texas.

Building on the experiences of Hurricane Harvey, the authors present a summary of flooding issues in Harris County and discuss proposed local and federal projects in preparation for the upcoming flood bond election in August 2018.