Research Library

U.S. policy should facilitate and support investment in Latin America’s oil and gas sectors, which would contribute to energy security and support economic integration with Mexico and Latin America, writes fellow Francisco J. Monaldi.

With growing competition from abroad, the U.S. must reform its fiscal policy to reduce debt, maximize economic efficiency — including minimizing the distortions caused by the tax system — and maintain its areas of competitive advantage.

Science, technology, and innovation are vital to America’s economy and workforce, and the competitiveness of U.S. industry. The authors offer five recommendations to ensure the establishment of an effective White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

This paper presents a simple dynamic growth model of investment, consumption, passive military spending, and active military spending for an oil-exporting country. It argues that under conditions of significant geopolitical strife, a country might engage in a military conflict of limited scope and extent to drive up oil prices and revenues.

This paper examines the cash flow and financial issues affecting Venezuela’s PDVSA, as well as the operational challenges facing the country’s oil industry.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega was elected to a third consecutive and fourth overall term as president Sunday. While Ortega has successfully revitalized Nicaragua’s economy, his reelection signals a return toward an authoritarian power structure that dismantles the country’s democratic progress.

Criminal extortion is on the rise in Mexico, particularly along the northern border states. Author Gary Hale shows how this trend has fueled government corruption, with officials implicitly or explicitly aiding organized crime groups as they extort businesses and citizens.

Understood in its regional context, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs appears to be a continuation rather than a departure from Southeast Asian drug policy.

This policy brief analyzes the impact of the increasing number of parents who opt their children out of school-entry vaccinations for nonmedical reasons in Texas and argues that the state should make obtaining nonmedical exemptions more rigorous in order to reduce the public health risks and costs associated with vaccine-preventable diseases.

This brief argues that, in contrast to the pessimism and ongoing recession in Latin America generated by the collapse of commodity prices, there are reasons for optimism in the area of external financing.