Research Library

Last week, the Joe Biden administration released a long-awaited executive order containing a government-wide outline for digital assets, focusing on cryptocurrency. The guidance is a welcome and timely development for both regulators and investors.

The authors review the impact of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a government initiative that allowed small businesses to apply for low-interest loans during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the PPP helped cover employment-related expenses and mitigated unemployment for some businesses, it remained inaccessible to others, they conclude.

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.

Although once known for its robust urea and ammonia production capabilities, Mexico found itself particularly vulnerable to soaring international fertilizer prices in 2021. With the global circumstances surrounding the spike in prices likely to linger through 2022, and Mexico's state-owned infrastructure still hampered by technical issues, the impact could be borne all the way to dinner tables in the form of higher nutrient prices for local farmers and food inflation.

The authors take a realistic look at what's needed for the global energy transition to succeed and warn that moving away from fossil fuels too quickly could backfire — stranding climate progress in the so-called “valley of death.”

Held virtually across three days in December 2020, the Presidential Elections Program's third conference — "A Presidential Election During the Time of COVID-19" — brought together a diverse group of academics, campaign consultants and other prominent individuals to review the dynamics and outcome of the 2020 presidential election. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions of the many individuals who participated in the conference’s five thematic panels, as well as a moderated conversation featuring veteran political consultants Stephanie Cutter and Beth Myers, who served as the conference's honorary co-chairs.

In this working paper, the author examines the economic effects of enacting a proposal by the Biden administration to tax long term capital gains at ordinary income tax rates for those with taxable income above $1 million and tax unrealized gains at the time of death for single (joint) filers with more than $1 million ($2 million) in unrealized gains. A similar version of the report was prepared with the financial support of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation.

With center-right President Emmanuel Macron facing off against extreme-right Marine Le Pen, what’s in store for the French presidential election next April? In a new brief, Baker Institute faculty scholar Julie Fette and William Tsai, Rice '24, examine the polls, platforms and possibilities.

Three of Argentina's provinces are the largest oil and gas producers in the country. In each one, the governor's political power took a blow in last Sunday's primaries.