Research Library

In late July, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar delivered a bleak economic outlook for the state’s economy: the amount of general revenue funds available for the current biennium is expected to be $11.5 billion less than originally estimated. Should the state tap into its rainy day fund to offset the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and facilitate a stable recovery?

The liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry faces increasing pressure to do more to achieve climate change objectives. A new product—Green LNG—could help ensure that natural gas keeps its role in the energy transition, if the LNG industry can convert Green LNG into a uniform, tradable commodity, write the authors.

Analysis of Federal Reserve survey data released in September 2020 shows that U.S. wealth inequality has declined for the first time in 30 years.

Public finance fellow Joyce Beebe reviews the changing definition of employment, specifically looking at the current policy measures for providing benefits and protections to workers in the sharing economy. She also discusses concerns regarding workplace automation.

Public finance fellow Joyce Beebe discusses the tax policy considerations of an increasingly mobile workforce, including state tax and regulatory issues, reimbursement for home office expenses and workplace benefits.

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.

The September 2020 HPR newsletter considers whether freestanding emergency departments lower market spending on emergency care by serving as lower-cost substitutes for hospital emergency departments..

Public finance fellow Joyce Beebe examines a new approach that states have been exploring to secure additional revenue during the Covid-19 pandemic — imposing excise taxes on sports betting and daily fantasy sports. Baker Institute Blog: https://bit.ly/3jNT85Z

Fellow Kristian Coates Ulrichsen examines where the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council currently stand in their outlook and approaches toward the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

Gabriel Collins, the Baker Botts Fellow in Energy & Environmental Regulatory Affairs, analyzes the impact of China’s emerging demographic decline, debt burden and increasingly likely structural economic growth downshift on global oil and gas markets.