Research Library

The number of anti-vaccine bills filed in Texas has risen, yet many Texans support vaccine policy. Fellow Kirstin R.W. Matthews and nonresident scholar Rekha Lakshmanan examine the stakes of legislative engagement in public health initiatives and provide a call to action for Texans to embrace public health as an act of freedom.

Will Biden’s strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen prove effective? Fellow Joe Barnes lays out challenges facing the president as the Israel-Hamas war escalates.

Mark Finley offers a cheat sheet summarizing Gulf Coast energy data for the this year's hurricane season.

Decades of bad policy have heightened the risks of drug use and created barriers to treatment. And while some states are now trying to reduce the harms caused by the drug war, Texas is doubling down on ineffective policies.

Two new bills introduced in the Texas Legislature could jeopardize the care received by Medicaid patients, writes Vivian Ho, the James A. Baker III Institute Chair in Health Economics. She explains why the legislation would weaken county-owned insurance plans and raise Texans’ tax bills.

Texas lawmakers must address the misuse of anticipation notes — short-term debt securities used to raise money for public projects, writes John Diamond, the Edward A. and Hermena Hancock Kelly Fellow in Public Finance. Since they don’t require voter approval, politicians could use them to fund unwanted projects, he explains.

In 2022, the nation faced fundamental questions about how we govern our economy and society — particularly how we formulate public policy. Here, we share 10 highlights of our work that illustrate our impact from the previous year.

What’s the cheapest, quickest way to reduce climate change without roiling the economy? In the United States, it may be by reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.