Research Library

Center for Energy Studies senior director Ken Medlock provided an overview of trends in electricity generation by source — from coal and natural gas to wind, solar and biomass — and the role of infrastructure during testimony before the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on March 5.  Download the PDFs below to read his written testimony and the questions for the record submitted to Medlock, as well as his answers.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 placed a $10,000 limit on the amount of state and local taxes taxpayers may deduct on their federal income tax returns. In this report, public finance fellow Joyce Beebe examines the pros and cons of the limit and state-level efforts to circumvent the cap.

A newly released study from the Project on Middle East Political Science at George Washington University includes a contribution from fellow Jim Krane on subsidy reform and tax increases in the Middle East.

Despite the period of very low interest rates since the 2008 financial crisis, bank lending has failed to recover. In this issue brief, public finance fellow Thomas L. Hogan explores the potential causes of this post-crisis decline in bank lending.

Fellow Joyce Beebe examines recent policies and proposals that aim to simplify the federal student loan process.

Measuring the costs of corruption around the world is challenging due to varying definitions of corruption, the invisibility of many corrupt acts, and the subjectivity of perceptions. In this research paper, postdoctoral research fellow Jose I. Rodriguez-Sanchez explores the difficulties of measuring corruption in Mexico.

There is a growing global momentum to address the critical economic and environmental problem of plastic waste management. Fellow Rachel A. Meidl discusses the key elements and causes of this problem and explores policy actions for reducing the reliance on single-use plastics.

In this paper for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, fellows Jorge Barro and John W. Diamond examine the history behind Texas’ property tax system, recent attempts to reduce the growing magnitude of the property tax burden, and the economic effects of two options for eliminating the school maintenance and operations (M&O) property tax: https://bit.ly/2zIZRZy 

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 mix of good short-term prospects for oil revenues along with long-term market uncertainties has a clear policy implication for oil-dependent Latin American economies: use the larger short-term revenues to diversify their economies, nonresident fellow José Antonio Ocampo writes in a new issue brief.