Research Library

A hot job market is spurring a decline in college enrollment — with possible downsides for would-be students once the labor market cools.

A decision by a Japanese streaming company to suspend operations in China is the latest iteration in China’s war for influence over soft power cultural products from other countries. Even more surprising, it ended with a loss for China.

Energy fellow Mark Finley assesses the future of international oil companies given the tremendous pressure they've experienced since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. Using a football analogy, he suggests that although business leaders are rightly focused on winning the game, they can’t ignore the condition of the playing field.

Public finance fellow Joyce Beebe examines a new approach that states have been exploring to secure additional revenue during the Covid-19 pandemic — imposing excise taxes on sports betting and daily fantasy sports. Baker Institute Blog: https://bit.ly/3jNT85Z

Coronavirus cases in Texas may grow as the state expands COVID-19 screening and the consequences of delayed decisions to limit public interactions set in. "No one should be surprised lim or panic as the figures roll out," write the authors in the Baker Institute Blog.

Social media is becoming more and more a part of the daily political process. From a political science perspective, the ability to capture the ideology of elites and citizens using a common platform greatly helps in answering a very important question: which party’s ideological position is closest to that of its supporters, on a left-right ideology scale? Research scholar Abdullah Aydogan analyzes the tweets of four major Turkish political parties to answer this question in a post for the Baker Institute Blog.

Baker Institute political science fellow Mark Jones describes eight key takeaways from Houston’s Nov. 3 city elections, including the defeat of HERO, the odds of a future equal rights ordinance being passed in the city, and runoffs in the mayoral race and several key city council posts. Read his post in the Nov. 4 Baker Institute Blog.