Research Library

Although Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is confident that measures implemented in the first half of his tenure will help Mexico to achieve energy self-sufficiency, his optimism must be weighed against the evidence, writes nonresident scholar Adrian Duhalt. In this brief, Duhalt explains the flaws in López Obrador’s plan and why Mexico is unlikely to achieve energy self-sufficiency anytime soon.

In the wake of the collapse of Terra — a once-prosperous blockchain network that suffered one of the biggest falls in the history of cryptocurrency — the authors discuss recent government efforts to regulate digital assets.

The U.S. is facing an acute semiconductor shortage, exacerbated by pandemic-related disruptions to global supply chains, writes fellow Joyce Beebe. In this brief, she analyzes two federal proposals that seek to expand U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and weighs the pros and cons of including tax incentives in any final bill.

As iron ore, copper, and lithium producers, Brazil and Chile have a competitive advantage in the global energy transition. This brief outlines the countries' opportunities to profit from their exports while reducing their domestic consumption of fossil fuels.

The UK recently announced that it will pursue commercial arrangements with up to 20 individual U.S. states, beginning with Texas. In this brief, fellow David Gantz explores what these arrangements could achieve and the potential legal and constitutional constraints that may limit their reach.

Entrepreneurs contribute to job growth, innovation and economic resiliency. In this brief, public finance fellow Joyce Beebe reviews five tax benefits commonly used, and sometimes overlooked, by entrepreneurs.

Following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan last summer, the world witnessed one of the largest and most rapid humanitarian evacuation missions in U.S. history. Since then, Afghan evacuees have faced numerous challenges in seeking resettlement in the United States.

The war in Ukraine could severely disrupt exports of Russian gas to Europe. Energy fellows Steven Miles and Gabriel Collins explain how existing LNG floating storage vessels can provide a concrete, rapidly implementable gas supply solution until longer-term infrastructure investments are in place.

Although once known for its robust urea and ammonia production capabilities, Mexico found itself particularly vulnerable to soaring international fertilizer prices in 2021. With the global circumstances surrounding the spike in prices likely to linger through 2022, and Mexico's state-owned infrastructure still hampered by technical issues, the impact could be borne all the way to dinner tables in the form of higher nutrient prices for local farmers and food inflation.

A new source of revenue — taxes on digital advertising — is gaining momentum at the state level. This brief reviews the case for and against digital ad taxes, and trends to look out for as developments unfold.