Research Library

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.

In this study, the authors surveyed students in 80 Harris County schools, as well as their parents, to identify external factors that influence academic performance, particularly among students living in poverty. Their findings can be broadly used to better understand the unmet needs of students under current systems of support, and to develop solutions that can give every child an opportunity to succeed.

Indigenous natural resource wealth can provide a basis for robust economic development and broad macroeconomic development, especially when there is appropriate governance and robust legal and regulatory institutions. But a lack of institutional fortitude in many regions around the world has contributed to failure to translate resource wealth into broader macroeconomic wealth.

The author gives an overview of the USMCA's implications for Mexico, finding that while challenges remain for the U.S.-Mexico relationship, the possibility of the trade agreement going into effect by 2020 should greatly reduce uncertainties about the future of North American trade.

By: Lourdes Ampudia Rueda, Visiting Scholar, Baker Institute Mexico Center In this research paper, the author explores public policy issues related to the increasing elite involvement in urban development and privatization in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. https://doi.org/10.25613/ayg5-qp17

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.

This report examines the societal and economic benefits of investing in children’s early brain development. It also assesses public child care, preschool, home-visiting and parenting education programs in Texas and makes recommendations for possible reforms.

This paper reports the key climate change and public policy issues addressed by guest speakers during the 2014-15 Climate Lecture Series hosted by the Center for Energy Studies.

A new analysis reveals substantial global health gains for AIDS, malaria and neglected tropical diseases that were first targeted by the administration of President George W. Bush in 2003 and then greatly expanded by the Obama administration. Beginning in 2016, an incoming administration will have opportunities to build on this legacy to control and eliminate poverty-related diseases — including those with pandemic potential — and to assert American leadership while being mindful of fiscal constraints.