Research Library

A Dec. 2018 workshop on money laundering in Mexico, held at Tecnológico de Monterrey and co-sponsored by the Baker Institute Mexico Center, resulted in the executive report below. It is written in Spanish. 

If the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is approved, this modified and modernized version of NAFTA will govern most economic relationships in North America. David A. Gantz, the Will Clayton Fellow in Trade and International Economics, reviews the USMCA and discusses its positive and negative elements.

This report reviews different types of income sources for kids and young adults and the associated tax implications. It also discusses the revised kiddie tax rules — a mechanism intended to discourage parents from transferring assets to their children to lower their own tax liabilities — after the 2017 tax act.

The sharing economy — an industry that includes a number of mostly online enterprises such as Uber and Airbnb that match service providers with clients — poses sweeping legal, commercial and social challenges. Fellow Joyce Beebe analyzes key federal tax considerations for companies and workers in this growing sector.

Why do unaccompanied minors flee their home countries and what happens when they reach Mexico or the United States?  This report provides an overview of the perilous journey and the reality of detention centers, concluding that a child-centric approach in both countries should address the needs of these children.

Comprehensive, reliable, and publicly available data on China’s domestic oil flows and inventory movements are essentially inaccessible. In this report, the authors propose creating a forum to collect and analyze satellite data to shed more light on the inner workings of China's oil sector.

This report analyzes the comparable transactions method for valuing groundwater, which involves examining transactions for groundwater purchases or sales to gather pricing information, and explores how this method can be applied to groundwater valuations in Texas.

State "right to try" laws can give terminally ill patients early access to experimental drugs and medical devices — but they arguably make safety and efficacy secondary to speedy access.

This paper summarizes the presentations and discussions at May 14, 2015, workshop on water-energy interdependence and related issues. The Baker Institute Center for Energy Studies (CES) and the Texas A&M University Nexus Research Group convened the event.

Stem cells from umbilical cord blood (CB) can be used to treat over 80 different diseases, including many types of leukemia, lymphoma and inherited immune system disorders. Extensive storage facilities in the United States and around the world collect, test and freeze CB for later use in medical procedures. However, the divide between two different banking models — public versus private — presents policy challenges. This policy report examines the difference between public and private cord blood banks and offers recommendations for US policymakers to improve cord blood banking and ensure high quality standards.