Studies
Blog
NEW STUDY: Costly Regulations Hurt Entrepreneurship, Reform Needed to ‘Break Down Barriers’ for Jobs, Innovation
Costly regulations serve as a barrier to entrepreneurship, small business growth, innovation, and job opportunities to lift people into the middle class, concludes the first paper in a new series from the California-based, free-market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute. Click here to download the first paper in the Breaking ...
Wayne H Winegarden
April 3, 2019
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Plastic Police Always on The Job
DOWNLOAD THE PDF It was inevitable. California lawmakers’ assault on choice continues in 2019. The plastic-bag ban already in effect is not enough to satisfy their appetite for micromanaging others’ lives. After successfully outlawing single-use plastic bags in grocery stores and other large retailers, with the help of voters in ...
Kerry Jackson
March 25, 2019
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS – CEQA: How To Mend It Since You Can’t End It
It is no coincidence that California’s housing prices began to diverge from the rest of the country in 1970 – the very year that the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) was enacted. According to California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst, “Between 1970 and 1980, California home prices went from 30 percent above ...
Daniel Kolkey
February 20, 2019
Business & Economics
Facing $22 Trillion National Debt, New PRI Report Shows How “15 Percent Solution” Can Cut Debt, Grow Economy
On the heels of the news that the national debt has surpassed $22 trillion, the Pacific Research Institute today recommended reforms to bring spending under control, reduce the national debt and maximize economic growth in the latest report in its Beyond the New Normal series. “Just last week, as we learned ...
Wayne Winegarden
February 19, 2019
Agriculture
CAPITAL IDEAS: The Ripple Effects of Scientific Illiteracy Can Have Dire Consequences
DOWNLOAD THE PDF There is currently a trend toward misunderstanding or misrepresenting science, and it starts early. A grade-school teacher asked the class whether a whale is a fish or a mammal. One boy raised his hand and offered, “Let’s take a vote!” This phenomenon, variously dubbed “the death of ...
Robert Wager and Henry I. Miller
February 6, 2019
Agriculture
CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Recent History of Manipulative Taxation
Download the PDF The rest of the country wasn’t surprised when California recently considered becoming the first state in the country to tax text messages. It almost seems as if there is a group of unelected bureaucrats that does nothing but cloister itself behind closed doors and dream up new ...
Kerry Jackson
January 16, 2019
Business & Economics
New Study Shows California/New York Approach to Fighting Global Warming Hurts Working Class and Minority Communities
Legislating Energy Poverty Shows Market-Based Policies More Effective in Cutting Emissions The big government approach to fighting ‘global warming’ taken by California and New York hits working class and minority communities the hardest, a new report released today by the California-based free-market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute, concludes. “Overzealous ...
Wayne Winegarden
December 5, 2018
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS: California Ranked Last Again – Do Lawmakers Even Care?
DOWNLOAD THE PDF Keeping track of the many informative lists in which California ranks at or near the bottom is a wearying task. It is also discouraging. This state, once the envy of all others, is losing its luster because policymakers continue to take it down a dark road. While ...
Kerry Jackson
November 6, 2018
Health Care
New PRI Study: Congress Has Some Unfinished Business – Acting to Repeal the Medical Device Tax
The controversial medical device tax hurts doctors, patients and manufacturers and should be repealed by Congress – according a new study released today by the California-based, free-market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute. Click here to download a copy of the study. “As the congressional session winds down, Congress has ...
Wayne H Winegarden
October 8, 2018
Agriculture
Dr. Henry Miller Publishes New Federalist Society White Paper on Regulation of Food & Ag Biotech
We Need Smarter Regulation of Food and Agricultural Biotechnology By John J. Cohrseen and Henry I. Miller EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In the early 1970s a group of scientists — none involved in agriculture or food — raised concerns about the hypothetical hazards that might arise from the use of the newly ...
Pacific Research Institute
September 28, 2018
NEW STUDY: Costly Regulations Hurt Entrepreneurship, Reform Needed to ‘Break Down Barriers’ for Jobs, Innovation
Costly regulations serve as a barrier to entrepreneurship, small business growth, innovation, and job opportunities to lift people into the middle class, concludes the first paper in a new series from the California-based, free-market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute. Click here to download the first paper in the Breaking ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Plastic Police Always on The Job
DOWNLOAD THE PDF It was inevitable. California lawmakers’ assault on choice continues in 2019. The plastic-bag ban already in effect is not enough to satisfy their appetite for micromanaging others’ lives. After successfully outlawing single-use plastic bags in grocery stores and other large retailers, with the help of voters in ...
CAPITAL IDEAS – CEQA: How To Mend It Since You Can’t End It
It is no coincidence that California’s housing prices began to diverge from the rest of the country in 1970 – the very year that the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) was enacted. According to California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst, “Between 1970 and 1980, California home prices went from 30 percent above ...
Facing $22 Trillion National Debt, New PRI Report Shows How “15 Percent Solution” Can Cut Debt, Grow Economy
On the heels of the news that the national debt has surpassed $22 trillion, the Pacific Research Institute today recommended reforms to bring spending under control, reduce the national debt and maximize economic growth in the latest report in its Beyond the New Normal series. “Just last week, as we learned ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: The Ripple Effects of Scientific Illiteracy Can Have Dire Consequences
DOWNLOAD THE PDF There is currently a trend toward misunderstanding or misrepresenting science, and it starts early. A grade-school teacher asked the class whether a whale is a fish or a mammal. One boy raised his hand and offered, “Let’s take a vote!” This phenomenon, variously dubbed “the death of ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: California’s Recent History of Manipulative Taxation
Download the PDF The rest of the country wasn’t surprised when California recently considered becoming the first state in the country to tax text messages. It almost seems as if there is a group of unelected bureaucrats that does nothing but cloister itself behind closed doors and dream up new ...
New Study Shows California/New York Approach to Fighting Global Warming Hurts Working Class and Minority Communities
Legislating Energy Poverty Shows Market-Based Policies More Effective in Cutting Emissions The big government approach to fighting ‘global warming’ taken by California and New York hits working class and minority communities the hardest, a new report released today by the California-based free-market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute, concludes. “Overzealous ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: California Ranked Last Again – Do Lawmakers Even Care?
DOWNLOAD THE PDF Keeping track of the many informative lists in which California ranks at or near the bottom is a wearying task. It is also discouraging. This state, once the envy of all others, is losing its luster because policymakers continue to take it down a dark road. While ...
New PRI Study: Congress Has Some Unfinished Business – Acting to Repeal the Medical Device Tax
The controversial medical device tax hurts doctors, patients and manufacturers and should be repealed by Congress – according a new study released today by the California-based, free-market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute. Click here to download a copy of the study. “As the congressional session winds down, Congress has ...
Dr. Henry Miller Publishes New Federalist Society White Paper on Regulation of Food & Ag Biotech
We Need Smarter Regulation of Food and Agricultural Biotechnology By John J. Cohrseen and Henry I. Miller EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In the early 1970s a group of scientists — none involved in agriculture or food — raised concerns about the hypothetical hazards that might arise from the use of the newly ...