Research Library

Indigenous natural resource wealth can provide a basis for robust economic development and broad macroeconomic development, especially when there is appropriate governance and robust legal and regulatory institutions. But a lack of institutional fortitude in many regions around the world has contributed to failure to translate resource wealth into broader macroeconomic wealth.

Key industry practices followed by international oil and gas companies, if adequately implemented by Pemex, may complement Mexico's energy plan to help recognize areas of opportunity for Pemex, the authors write.

The author gives an overview of the USMCA's implications for Mexico, finding that while challenges remain for the U.S.-Mexico relationship, the possibility of the trade agreement going into effect by 2020 should greatly reduce uncertainties about the future of North American trade.

By: Lourdes Ampudia Rueda, Visiting Scholar, Baker Institute Mexico Center In this research paper, the author explores public policy issues related to the increasing elite involvement in urban development and privatization in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. https://doi.org/10.25613/ayg5-qp17

King Mohammed VI of Morocco has cultivated the country’s image as a bastion of moderate Islam and of himself as a strategic partner, but to what extent does his international reputation correspond to public opinion in Morocco? In this paper, the author evaluates the king’s domestic standing as part of a larger Baker Institute study on religious authority in the Middle East.

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.

This report examines the societal and economic benefits of investing in children’s early brain development. It also assesses public child care, preschool, home-visiting and parenting education programs in Texas and makes recommendations for possible reforms.

In this paper for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, fellows Jorge Barro and John W. Diamond examine the history behind Texas’ property tax system, recent attempts to reduce the growing magnitude of the property tax burden, and the economic effects of two options for eliminating the school maintenance and operations (M&O) property tax: https://bit.ly/2zIZRZy 

Public finance fellow John Diamond and Rice faculty scholar George Zodrow analyze the short- and long-term economic effects of a federal carbon tax in the United States.

The authors seek to spark a deeper conversation on the merits of geoeconomics — i.e., using economic instruments to produce beneficial geopolitical results — as a potential source of new and scalable policy options for the US, as well as the EU and its individual member states, to bolster gas supply and national security across Europe.