Baker Institute for Public Policy
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Founded in 1993, Rice University’s Baker Institute ranks among the top five university-affiliated think tanks in the world. As a premier nonpartisan think tank, the institute conducts research on domestic and foreign policy issues with the goal of bridging the gap between the theory and practice of public policy. Learn more about the Baker Institute
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Item It's Gogol, Again(James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 2004) Kotkin, Stephen; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyWhere are the analysts who in the early and mid-1990s warned incessantly of Communist restoration as the gravest danger facing Russia now that the downtrodden Communists remain almost the only organized public counterweight to the Kremlin? Where are the experts who lectured during the fiction of neo-liberal reforms about the need to establish a social safety net now that the Kremlin has, finally, started pulling the net out from under Russian society? Where are the earnest commentators who remonstrated about not imposing Western models on Russia—about the imperative that Russia be allowed to go its own way—now that it is painfully obvious Russia has gone its own way? At a December 2004 press conference, a twice popularly elected President Putin—preening in his sixth consecutive year of robust GDP growth—underscored “the choice made by Russia to follow its own optimal road of development.” But Russia’s state and society are churning. The country appears stuck. The degree to which Putin’s preferences or a political culture and innate problems of governability condition Russia’s outlier status can be debated. But barring a sudden discovery of cost-effective substitutes for fossil fuels, Russia will likely muddle along on its current path buttressed by oil revenues, whoever is its ruler—proudly, stubbornly refusing to kowtow to global trends and exigencies. For the long-term political outlook, the evolution of Russian society will be fundamental. But so far, the property-owning class remains narrow. Despite the economic growth, the number of small and medium businesses has not grown appreciably, and they remain very far from exerting the influence that would help transform the political system fundamentally. For now, hydrocarbons continue to underwrite Russia’s reluctance to adapt. And despite the benefits that international cooperation in energy would bring, Russia may drag its feet on establishing further genuine partnerships until its fossil fuel sector reaches catastrophe.Item The Impact of Government Regulation on the Medical Treatment of Pain(James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 2004) Hill, C. Stratton; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyThe thesis of this presentation is that the current therapeutic milieu created by government regulatory bodies and law enforcement agencies for physicians treating chronic pain patients using opioids (narcotics) is threatening, both administratively and criminally, which results in unnecessary pain and suffering and a diminished quality of life for the patient.Item Gas FAQ Video Briefing Transcript: U.S. Gasoline Markets and U.S. Oil Dependence(James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 2007) Medlock, Kenneth B. III; Jaffe, Amy Myers; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyItem Militarization of Energy: Geopolitical Threats to the Global Energy System(James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 2008) Jaffe, Amy Myers; Soligo, Ronald; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyItem The Future of Russian Natural Gas Exports(James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 2008) Hartley, Peter R.; Medlock, Kenneth B. III; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyItem Food for Thought … Pun Intended(James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 2008) Jaffe, Amy Myers; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyItem Fundamentals of a Sustainable U.S. Biofuels Policy(James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 2010) Alvarez, Pedro J.J.; Burken, Joel G.; Coan, James D.; de Oliveira, Marcelo E. Dias; Dominguez-Faus, Rosa; Gomez, Diego E.; Jaffe, Amy Myers; Medlock, Kenneth B. III; Powers, Susan E.; Soligo, Ronald; Smulcer, Lauren A.; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyItem A Marketing Campaign to Reduce Vehicle Fuel Use(James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 2012) Coan, James D.; Barnes, Joe; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyItem Charting Chinaメs Natural Gas Future(James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 2013) Houser, Trevor; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyItem Vigilantism in Mexico: A New Phase in Mexico’s Security Crisis(James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 2014) Hale, Gary J.; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyItem Energy Reform and Security in Northeastern Mexico(James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 2014) Payan, Tony; Correa-Cabrera, Guadalupe; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyItem Toxocariasis in North America: A Systematic Review(Public Library of Science, 2014) Lee, Rachel M.; Moore, Laura B.; Bottazzi, Maria Elena; Hotez, Peter J.; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyToxocariasis is an important neglected tropical disease that can manifest as visceral or ocular larva migrans, or covert toxocariasis. All three forms pose a public health problem and cause significant morbidity in areas of high prevalence. To determine the burden of toxocariasis in North America, we conducted a systematic review of the literature following PRISMA guidelines. We found 18 articles with original prevalence, incidence, or case data for toxocariasis. Prevalence estimates ranged from 0.6% in a Canadian Inuit community to 30.8% in Mexican children with asthma. Commonly cited risk factors included: African-American race, poverty, male sex, and pet ownership or environmental contamination by animal feces. Increased prevalence of Toxocara spp. infection was linked in a group of case control studies conducted in Mexico to several high risk groups including waste pickers, asthmatic children, and inpatient psychiatry patients. Further research is needed to determine the true current burden of toxocariasis in North America; however the prevalence estimates gathered in this review suggest that the burden of disease is significant.Item Global LNG Pricing Terms and Revisions: An Empirical Analysis(James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 2014) Agerton, Mark; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyMost LNG is sold under confidential, bilateral long-term contracts, particularly in Asia. Thus, though prices are thought to be indexed to crude oil, actual prices, contract terms and price revision clauses are not known. Therefore, I use customs data and techniques for detecting multiple unknown structural breaks in cointegrated regressions to characterize empirical pricing relationships and make inferences about pricing terms for 16 Japanese, South Korean, Taiwanese and Spanish LNG price series. LNG does appear to be indexed to oil, but terms appear considerably more complex and varied than rules of thumb. I find evidence for S-curve behavior, multiple revisions and variation in both the degree of indexation and the specification of oil benchmarks. Japanese terms are revised most. Terms for the other importers appear more stable, and indexation is weakest in Spain. This paper complements existing work on gas market integration, which largely ignores the data-generating process for LNG prices.Item Latin America’s Recent Economic Turmoil(James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 2015) Ocampo, José Antonio; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyTrade and financial shocks have worsened Latin America’s economic prospects over the past year. World trade is experiencing stagnation and commodity prices have collapsed. The latter phenomenon and the turmoil in emerging capital markets have led to increased costs and reduced availability of external financing. However, while the commodity shock is likely to last, the financial shock will probably be weaker than during past crises. In any case, Latin America—and South America in particular—will perform poorly both in 2015 and 2016.Item New Migration Patterns: High-Skilled Entrepreneurial Migration from Mexico to the United States(James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 2015) Pacheco, Elizabeth Salamanca; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyThe number of high-skilled Mexican entrepreneurs working and living in the United States has increased during the last years. Texas is one of the states that illustrate this. A recurrent explanation of this entrepreneurial migration is the insecurity caused by the extended presence of organized crime in Mexico. But, is insecurity the only or most influential factor leading Mexican entrepreneurs to migrate? Are there additional factors contributing to this migration? To what extent do the push factors of the Mexican institutional context influence entrepreneurs’ decision to migrate? Do the pull factors of the U.S. institutional context influence the migration decision as well, or do they only perpetuate the decision to stay in the United States? The paper addresses these questions through qualitative research based on 20 in-depth interviews with Mexican entrepreneurs working and living in Houston. The theoretical framework considered for the design of the interview is a mixed-embeddedness approach. Findings show that push and pull factors have changed during recent years. Insecurity is one but not the only or most important factor. Instead, the perception of a friendly U.S. fiscal system, the search for a better quality of life, and the appeal of a more transparent business environment are powerful initial and staying factors of Mexican entrepreneurial migration to the United States.Item Paris Attacks and Syrian Refugee Resettlement Policy(James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 2015) Yildirim, A.Kadir; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyItem Impact of the Neglected Tropical Diseases on Human Development in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Nations(Public Library of Science, 2015) Hotez, Peter J.; Herricks, Jennifer R.; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyItem Do patients and physicians agree on releasing abnormal test results directly to patients?(James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy;Baylor College of Medicine, 2015) Giardina, Traber Davis; Singh, Hardeep; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyItem The North American Nexus(James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, 2016) Djerejian, Edward P.; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyItem Religion among Scientists in International Context: A New Study of Scientists in Eight Regions(2016) Ecklund, Elaine Howard; Johnson, David R.; Scheitle, Christopher P.; Matthews, Kirstin R.W.; Lewis, Steven W.; James A. Baker III Institute for Public PolicyScientists have long been associated with religion’s decline around the world. But little data permit analysis of the religiosity of scientists or their perceptions of the science-faith interface. Here we present the first ever survey data from biologists and physicists in eight regions around the world—France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States, countries and regions selected because they exhibit differing degrees of religiosity, varying levels of scientific infrastructure, and unique relationships between religious and state institutions (N = 9,422). The data collection includes biologists and physicists at all career stages from elite and non-elite universities and research institutes. We uncovered that in most of the national contexts studied, scientists are indeed more secular—in terms of beliefs and practices—than those in their respective general populations, although in four of the regional contexts, over half of scientists see themselves as religious. And surprisingly, scientists do not think science is in conflict with religion. Instead, most see religion and science as operating in separate spheres.