Research Library

The USMCA will have potentially significant impacts for the textiles and apparel industry, but the free agricultural trade that is vital to all three NAFTA parties remains largely untouched, writes David A. Gantz.

Soda taxes have been proposed to help curb consumption and improve health outcomes. Fellow Joyce Beebe reviews recent attempts at taxing these beverages and provides practical policy solutions.

Given the growing problems associated with plastics, what policy approaches are best equipped to manage global plastic pollution? Policies invoking a modified version of the precautionary principle might be a useful approach, writes energy fellow Rachel A. Meidl.

Given the uncertainty surrounding the economic effects and the poorly targeted benefits and burdens of a minimum wage, it is unlikely to be the best policy to increase the wages of low-wage workers. Fellow John Diamond explains in the Baker Institute Blog

How should cloud computing be taxed? Fellow Joyce Beebe discusses how services like Dropbox and Gmail have both transformed daily life and complicated the taxation landscape. Baker Institute blog: https://bit.ly/2HqRgQ8

While sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline project would be very well received in Central and Eastern Europe, they could make the already strained relationship between U.S. and its Western European allies even more challenging, the author writes in a Forbes blog post: http://bit.ly/305Cc1F and the Baker Institute Blog.

Digital products are becoming increasingly widespread in the U.S., which is prompting state authorities to assess the taxability of these products. In this report, fellow Joyce Beebe reviews the current landscape and possible future developments in the taxation of digital products.

At a July 22, 2019, field hearing of the House Subcommittee on the Environment, Rice faculty scholar Jim Blackburn testified on ways to strengthen the Houston-Galveston area's resilience to hurricanes. Read his written testimony (PDF) or watch video of the hearing below. Blackburn's testimony begins at the 38:10 mark.

Policymakers have only begun to take steps to manage the tax-related issues arising from the sharing economy, not to mention the social, commercial and legal challenges it has generated. Baker Institute Blog: https://bit.ly/2O0VOlN

Declarations against violence issued by ulama on behalf of their government provide an opportunity for Muslim political leaders to signal their commitment to the international security agenda while vilifying Islamist opposition actors as terrorists. Baker Institute Blog: https://bit.ly/2LNAZrr