Research Library

The authors review the rating systems used to assign state unemployment insurance (SUI) tax rates to businesses, focusing on the reserve ratio and benefit ratio methods, and examine suggested alternatives.

This report finds that less than half of Texas hospitals are complying with federal price transparency regulations, despite a measure passed by the state Legislature intended to increase the financial penalty for noncompliance.

The authors write that enormous volumes of “energy transition waste” — waste from wind turbines, solar panels, lithium-ion batteries, etc. — are anticipated in the coming decades. To cope with this waste and ensure a sustainable energy transition, they call for more data, planning and coordination across the entire global supply chain, in addition to waste management and recycling policies that align with environmental and sustainability goals.

The authors show how new immigration policies can help maintain a strong economy as a growing number of older Americans leave the workforce.

In this report, the authors outline the U.S. federal budget process for scientific R&D, discuss trends in federal R&D funding and provide an outlook for federal scientific R&D funding during the Biden administration.

Gabriel Collins, the Baker Botts Fellow in Energy and Environmental Regulatory Affairs, explains why Section 625 of the CLEAN Future Act — which aims to classify oilfield-produced water as a hazardous waste — would likely induce multi-system disruptions severe enough to prevent the act from achieving its climate, energy, environmental, and social objectives.

President Biden has an opportunity, the author argues, to resurrect the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program and provide a pathway to legal status for millions of undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. This report explores the potential of the DAPA program to impact immigrant families and policy avenues toward its passage.

Rachel A. Meidl, the fellow in energy and environment, writes that investing in nanotechnology research and development is critical for future decarbonization strategies that can drive U.S. leadership in the clean energy revolution, reduce dependencies on foreign markets, yield economic and national security advantages, and enhance environmental justice and energy independence.

The unemployment insurance (UI) system is facing a perfect storm of problems: the pandemic has led to a surge in jobless claims, which is severely straining state UI trusts that weren't fully prepared for a recession. This report reviews the UI system and potential measures to mitigate challenges current downturn.

Public finance fellow Jorge Barro examines the Federal Reserve’s aggressive financial market response to the Covid-19 pandemic and asserts that without its use of unconventional policy tools, adverse outcomes could have spread to other areas of the economy, disproportionately impacting low-income households.