Research Library

Why have consumer credit scores gone up during the pandemic?  In this brief, public finance fellow Joyce Beebe discusses the disconnect between credit scores and other economic indicators, and the public policies behind the rising scores.

Michelle Michot Foss, fellow in energy, minerals and materials, testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy about the CLEAN Future Act and key considerations for decarbonizing the transportation sector.

The May 3 subway collapse in Mexico City highlights the ongoing institutional weakness and corruption of the current administration, with deadly results for the country’s citizens. Read more at the Baker Institute Blog.

Private equity investment in hospitals has grown substantially in the 21st century, and it accelerated in the years leading up the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study of short-term acute care hospitals acquired by private equity firms, the authors find they not only have higher markups and profit margins, they’re also slower to expand their staffs.

Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) have experienced a massive surge in popularity over the last year. How do SPACs work, and what are some of the tax implications that investors may overlook? Public finance fellow Joyce Beebe explains on the Baker Institute Blog: https://bit.ly/3t5eMH8

On May 28, the Biden administration announced plans to speed up immigrant court cases — a bid to limit backlogs and extremely long waits for cases to be heard. The Center for the United States and Mexico wrote about this problem in its April 2021 recommendations for an "effective, nimble and fair” immigration court system.

2021 changes to Mexico’s Hydrocarbon Law are expressions of state power through legal reforms, and are exceptionally alarming. Nonresident scholar Miriam Grunstein explains in the Baker Institute Blog.

Nonresident fellow Todd Moss testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Global Human Rights on the importance of defeating energy poverty in Africa and ensuring that African countries get fair treatment in climate policy.

The authors identify mental health stressors and strategies for coping with distress among underserved Latino communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a potential producer and exporter of green hydrogen — a fuel that can be burned without producing greenhouse gas emissions — Chile is at the forefront of the global energy transition. However, becoming a major exporter of green hydrogen is not without its challenges, writes the author.