Research Library

Rising crime and violence in Mexico threaten to derail the economic reforms that are President Enrique Peña Nieto's legacy.

Houston and Harris County area law enforcement leaders weigh in on the need for drug policy reforms in the United States.

To either close deals or resolve disputes, parties and courts must be able to attach a credible economic value to water that may still be underground in the aquifer. In this brief, fellow Gabriel Collins proposes a means of estimating this value that opens the door for a direct comparison of the implied price paid for groundwater in a land purchase transaction and the price paid for an explicit agreement to acquire only the groundwater estate beneath a tract.

What should new and established Houstonians know about area flooding caused by hurricanes? How can they avoid buying a home in a flood zone or contact the policymakers who decide where development can occur? Rice faculty fellow Jim Blackburn discusses these issues and more in this guide to living with flooding in Houston.

In the December 2017 issue of the Health Policy Research newsletter, Michael Kauth, director of the Veterans Health Administration’s LGBT Health Program, explains why it is important for physicians to ask patients about the sexual orientation and gender identity as a part of providing quality patient care.

The impending demise of petrodollar-supported capitalist Islamism, the failures of which begat 21st century terrorist Islamism, incentivizes the Muslim middle class and timocracies to find another outlet for Muslim liberation theology. This amplifies manifold the risks (and potential, but limited, benefits) of “Islamic finance.”  

A scandal that involves high-ranking officials from Costa Rica's three branches of government is testing the country's reputation for democratic stability. 

Many argue that sales and excise taxes are regressive based on the strict relationship between annual income and taxes paid, but the burden of higher sales taxes may actually fall more heavily on households with higher lifetime incomes.