Texas lawmakers must address the misuse of anticipation notes — short-term debt securities used to raise money for public projects, writes John Diamond, the Edward A. and Hermena Hancock Kelly Fellow in Public Finance. Since they don’t require voter approval, politicians could use them to fund unwanted projects, he explains.
This paper models the oil strategy of Gulf Arab states under three future energy transition scenarios. Under the most ambitious scenario, the region would have to decouple its oil revenues from its economic growth and could face significant economic and political consequences.
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.
A number of states are moving toward accepting bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for tax payments, writes public finance fellow Joyce Beebe. She explores the challenges this may bring and why a sizable number of states are racing to be viewed as crypto-friendly.
China’s dominance over the supply of rare earths — which are critical for energy transition and defense technologies — should spur U.S. policymakers to bolster raw materials supply chains, write energy fellow Michelle Michot Foss and co-author Jacob Koelsch.
Michelle Michot Foss, Jacob KoelschDecember 19, 2022
This brief reviews the factors that distinguish a “hobby” from a “business” in the eyes of the IRS as well as associated requirements, common misapplications of regulations and the factors that go into a determination between the two.
Why does Texas have its own power grid, and how can its history inform the future of electric power in the state? Nonresident scholar Julie Cohn looks beyond the mythology surrounding the standalone Texas grid and finds that reliability and economics — not politics — were the major factors leading to isolation.
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.