Research

This paper explores a modest but not insignificant opportunity to put a price on carbon that doesn’t raise consumer prices.

In this policy paper, authors Austin Vernon and Eli Dourado explore what life would be like with endless energy.

In this piece, Eli Dourado explores the many ways space investments improve our quality of life and allow us to innovate.

Authors Joaquin Alfredo-Angel Rubalcaba, Jose R. Bucheli, and Camila Morales evaluate the labor supply behavior of US-born Hispanic youth.

In this paper, authors Robert M. Zink and Luke B. Klicka examine—according to modern standards—the validity of subspecies currently listed.

What are targeted cash assistance programs and what are their effects? CGO Visiting Scholar Max Ghenis discusses in this research in focus.

Research commercialization is when a university signs a contract with a private company. Does location matter for these deals?

In this paper, Todd Griffith examines what happened with manufacturing and productivity after Immigration Reform and Control Act took effect.

What happens to immigrant communities when immigration enforcement is strictly enforced? Children may be affected the most.

How can private land be counted in the 30 x 30 efforts proposed by the Biden Administration? Megan Jenkins and Harrison Naftel explain.

In this comment authors examine two promising tools for private conservation that should be included in the US' 30 by 30 efforts.

During the Great Depression, the United States removed approximately 263,000 Mexicans, including US citizens. This paper looks at some of the effects.

This little known ICE program called IMAGE has some serious issues. Daniel Chand of Kent State University explains in this working paper.

Recently, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed a rule that would rescind its 2020 definition of habitat under the Endangered Species Act.

Size (and Scale) Matter: Addressing Ostrom’s Critics In his classic article “The Tragedy of the Commons,” Garrett Hardin famously declared that “ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons.” Elinor Ostrom disagreed. She argued that, even in […]

In 2009, Elinor Ostrom won the Noble memorial prize in economics sciences for, in the words of the prize committee, “demonstrating how local property can be successfully managed by local commons without any regulation by central authorities or privatization.” This account of Ostrom’s contribution focuses on how her work presented a “third way” of governing […]

In this poll (administered by YouGov), we continue to unpack how Americans view today’s major tech platforms, free speech, and more.

This paper describes how a non-profit and a for-profit business helped save one of the last grassland ecosystems in the world.

How much does an immigration visa cost? In this policy paper, Korok Ray answers and estimates how many immigrants the U.S. can take in.

Saving taxpayers and protecting homes, this solution is a win-win for landowners, insurers, and policymakers. To keep this private approach alive, we’ll need protections that fan the flames of innovation.

Given the well-known health harms of smoking, tobacco is regulated and taxed nearly everywhere in the world. With the introduction of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), commonly known as e-cigarettes, new questions have arisen about the risks to health from their use and whether they should be regulated as strictly as tobacco. In some quarters, […]

Alcohol is perhaps the most peculiarly regulated commodity in the US economy today. The locus of regulatory control lies mainly at the state level, owing to the Twenty-First Amendment and other legacies of the Prohibition era. This has created a wilderness of different distribution laws that have contributed to the limited variety of American beer for […]

The number of private school choice options has continued to grow ever since 1990, when the first modern-day school choice program in the United States was established in Milwaukee. Today, 65 private school choice programs are in operation in 29 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. These include vouchers, tax credit scholarships, and […]

Net neutrality is a term like pro-choice or right to work that sounds uncontroversial but is used by its proponents to refer to a specific and highly contentious policy. This chapter defines net neutrality as the policy adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) majority in its 2015 rule titled “Protecting and Promoting the Open […]

Governance for Networks: Regulation by Networks in Electric Power Markets in Texas Michael Giberson and L. Lynne Kiesling Most electricity consumers, whether households or small businesses, have few (if any) choices when it comes to their electricity supplier. The electric power business works a little differently in Texas, where most consumers can choose from among […]

During the past four decades, competition has come to several industries previously thought to be natural monopolies, including previously unlikely candidates such as telephone service and cable TV. Economic studies generally show that, contrary to what natural monopoly theory would predict, competition has produced cost reductions, price reductions, and other consumer benefits. Indeed, competition in these […]

In 2012, the mayor of a southern Utah town found herself working to protect the local cemetery from an invasion of small rodents. The Utah prairie dog had made itself at home in the cemetery, digging burrows that sank headstones and created hazards for those visiting their loved ones. Paragonah Mayor Constance Robinson explained that […]

The traditional economic rationale for government intervention in the economy is market failure. Underlying the market failure concept is the idea that, because of certain market frictions known as transaction costs, beneficial gains from trade are prevented from occurring that would otherwise increase social welfare. The usual cases where these kinds of transaction costs are present […]

Including energy codes in building codes is a policy option for reducing energy consumption that has received increased attention since the 1970s, driven by concerns about energy security and climate change. How much have such building energy codes helped reduce energy consumption, and are they wise policies from the standpoint of society broadly conceived? This […]