Research Library

Despite recent claims that “free trade is dead,” fellow Simon Lester explains that America was never close to anything resembling free trade in the first place. Instead, current U.S. trade policy, just like past policy, reflects a messy mix of free market and industrial policy views.

As the U.S. doubles down on trade protectionism, it risks weakening the global trade system and harming the American businesses, workers and consumers it aims to protect.

Two new bills introduced in the Texas Legislature could jeopardize the care received by Medicaid patients, writes Vivian Ho, the James A. Baker III Institute Chair in Health Economics. She explains why the legislation would weaken county-owned insurance plans and raise Texans’ tax bills.

In 2022, the nation faced fundamental questions about how we govern our economy and society — particularly how we formulate public policy. Here, we share 10 highlights of our work that illustrate our impact from the previous year.

Despite U.S. officials’ attempts to persuade Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to change course on his energy policy, which violates key provisions of the USMCA, his administration has not backed down, the authors write. They explain where the disputes between the U.S. and Mexico currently stand and what they mean for other aspects of the binational relationship.

By refusing to go along with an increased consumer subsidy fully available only for EVs and batteries produced in the U.S. with union labor, Sen. Manchin (perhaps with the assistance of Canada's government) has saved the U.S. government from what could have been a mortal blow to an integrated North American industry.

With the recent enactment of the CHIPS and Science Act, the conversation about industrial policy has started up again. Are state-directed economic policies back, and will such initiatives work?

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s investment policies, which aim to return Mexico to the protectionist, state-led policies of the 1960s and 1970s, seem almost certain to stagnate the country’s economy.

Introduction

The major drivers of Mexico’s outlook in 2022 will be 1) growing political polarization and social conflict…

Many climate policy approaches place a disproportionate burden on lower-income families, writes fellow Mark Finley. Political leaders have started to recognize that climate policy must approach fossil fuels and energy transition as an “AND”, not an “either/or”, and that the distributional impact of policy must also be addressed. Read more on the Baker Institute Blog. This post originally appeared in the Forbes blog on January 26, 2022.