Research Library

Decentralized finance is charting a path toward increased transparency and efficiency in the financial services sector. But do the benefits outweigh the risks?

Research scholar José Iván Rodríguez-Sánchez examines the economic impact of remittances — the money sent home by migrants working abroad — and finds varying results at the state and municipal levels in Mexico. He also warns against relying too heavily on remittances to drive economic growth.

How much can demographic changes account for trends in the U.S. economy? This paper shows that a heterogeneous-agent, overlapping-generations model with historical demographic flows can generate several features of the U.S. economy over the past several decades, including a secular decline in economic growth, a rise in savings relative to GDP, a corresponding decline in real interest rates, and, in part, changes in wealth inequality.

Texas has long been an economic leader, but the state lags critically in a major area: health. A new report by M.D. candidate Kushal T. Kadakia and nonresident scholar Anaeze C. Offodile II offers a road map for improving Texas’ health rankings by 10 spots in 10 years.

Fellow Joyce Beebe explores the tax scams featured on the IRS' "Dirty Dozen" list in this two-part brief series.

The U.S. is facing an acute semiconductor shortage, exacerbated by pandemic-related disruptions to global supply chains, writes fellow Joyce Beebe. In this brief, she analyzes two federal proposals that seek to expand U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and weighs the pros and cons of including tax incentives in any final bill.

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

On August 31, 2021, Energy Dialogues and the Center for Energy Studies hosted the Houston Energy Dialogues for the fifth consecutive year. Co-sponsors of this event were Sempra LNG, Schlumberger and Validere. As in previous years, the dialogues provided a platform for in-depth conversations about the energy industry involving representatives from government, industry, academia, environmental groups and regulatory bodies. Resiliency was a central theme. This report summarizes the day's discussions.

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