Expert Alerts

Rice U. experts available to discuss oil prices, global energy fallout from Russia-Ukraine conflict

As Russia faces sanctions for invading Ukraine, experts from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy are available to discuss the potential impact of cutting off Russian gas supplies to European countries and what the conflict means for global oil prices.

Access to gig economy may spur small business creation, study finds

Access to the gig economy may help facilitate the creation of new businesses, according to a new study. The gig (or short-term job) market is often more transitory than the traditional freelancing market. The flexibility and low barrier to entry of these jobs gives would-be entrepreneurs fallback opportunities that reduce their financial risk, argues Yael Hochberg, professor in entrepreneurship and finance at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business.

James Tour available to comment on molecular electronics advance

More than 20 years ago, Wired featured Rice University chemist James Tour in a story about molecular electronics, then a focus of his lab. At the time, he said commercializing single molecules turned into circuits was perhaps three to five years away. “I was only off by an order of magnitude,” Tour says now after assisting a California company, Roswell Biotechnologies, in fabricating semiconducting sensors using single molecules as the key component.

New book emphasizes key role social interaction plays in creativity

While some organizational decision-makers focus their attention on capital and physical resources, a new book reveals that effective people management should take center stage in the innovation process.

Should digital advertisers be taxed on the data they collect from us?

Is it legal — or even appropriate — for governments to tax digital advertisers on the user data collected from consumers? That’s one of the many questions public policy makers must grapple with as they look for new ways to collect taxes from the digital economy, according to a new policy brief from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

After hurricanes, what makes people decide to stay or to go?

Rice U. expert available to discuss cryptocurrency taxes

HOUSTON – (Sept. 13, 2021) – Cryptocurrency — an estimated $2 trillion market — has created an estimated $1 trillion tax gap and become too big to avoid regulatory oversight, according to a new blog post from an expert at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

How can Uncle Sam tax cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency — an estimated $2 trillion market — has created an estimated $1 trillion tax gap and become too big to avoid regulatory oversight, according to a new blog post from Joyce Beebe, fellow in public finance at Rice's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Climate progress requires competition, not cooperation, with China

HOUSTON – (Sept. 8, 2021) – Global climate progress requires fundamentally altering the economic bottom line that’s the foundation of the Chinese Communist Party’s power– and it will come through competition, not cooperation, according to experts at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and the U.S. Naval War College.

Biden continues Trump’s ‘benign neglect’ of USMCA

HOUSTON – (Sept. 7, 2021) – Mexican officials are right to worry that the United States’ “rules of origin” interpretation in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement could reduce Mexican automobile production and investment, according to an expert from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Rice U. experts available to discuss 20th anniversary of Sept. 11

Paper: Wealth inequality shrinking after Trump-era tax reform, but progress at risk

Wealth inequality dropped in 2019 in the U.S. for the first time in almost three decades, but proposed tax legislation is threatening to reverse the progress, according to an expert at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Wealth inequality shrinking after Trump-era tax reform, but progress at risk, says Baker Institute expert

HOUSTON – (Aug. 27, 2021) – Wealth inequality dropped in 2019 in the U.S. for the first time in almost three decades, but proposed tax legislation is threatening to reverse the progress, according to an expert at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

US must take responsibility for Afghan refugees, says expert

As some Afghan refugees fleeing the chaos in their home country head to the United States, Kelsey Norman, fellow for the Middle East and director of the Women’s Rights, Human Rights and Refugees Program at Rice's Baker Institute for Public Policy, argues that the U.S. is dodging responsibility by distributing most refugees across the globe, which will force them to wade through more bureaucracy.

Shale oil investments may be protected from nationalization, experts say

Shale oil’s short-cycle production protects foreign investors from the risk of expropriation — government taking private property for public use — providing an opportunity for the increasingly risk-averse global petroleum industry, according to a new report.