An increasing number of states have begun to contemplate state-administered individual retirement account programs. How do these differ from employer-sponsored plans? And would they be able to provide workers with meaningful retirement savings? Public finance fellow Joyce Beebe explains.

This paper lays out one potential step-by-step path toward decarbonizing Saudi Arabia, imagining a sweeping restructuring of a fossil fuel-driven society and economy.

After a delay, the Joe Biden administration has issued its National Security Strategy (NSS), a summary of the administration’s foreign policy approach. Fellow Joe Barnes discusses the usefulness and implications of the NSS in this commentary.

How durable is the Saudi-Russian relationship, and what are its implications for the longstanding energy-for-security arrangement between Saudi Arabia and the U.S.?

Texas has long been an economic leader, but the state lags critically in a major area: health. A new report by M.D. candidate Kushal T. Kadakia and nonresident scholar Anaeze C. Offodile II offers a road map for improving Texas’ health rankings by 10 spots in 10 years.

Expert Heidi Russell analyzes the economic impacts of relaxing vaccination requirements for children and finds that as immunization rates decline, the costs of an outbreak increase.

Political, market and geopolitical headwinds have slowed down Biden’s ambitious climate plans, write energy experts Anna Mikulska and Michael Maher. In this brief, they explore why progress on decarbonization is likely to be more gradual than initially envisioned.

This brief outlines how the Small Business Administration's long-standing 7(a) loan program can build upon the lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic to strengthen its operations and impact.

Vaccination policies are a cornerstone of public health, but anti-vaccine activists have been adamantly pushing for legislation that would weaken and dismantle the public health infrastructure, the authors write. In this issue brief, they examine vaccine policy challenges leading up to and during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the future of vaccine legislation in Texas and the United States.

Abstract

The protection of critical infrastructure (water, energy, food supply, healthcare etc.) from cyberattack has…