Balsa Research
Building the evidence base for policy changes that benefits all Americans
Current Focus: Maritime Policy Reform
America used to be a maritime power. Today, less than 4% of domestic freight moves by water despite our 95,000 miles of shoreline and 25,000 miles of navigable rivers. A century of neglect has strangled an industry that should be thriving.
We fund unbiased academic research to quantify what's broken, develop practical reform proposals, and do the unglamorous groundwork that makes policy change possible. Our current work focuses on Jones Act reform, Dredge Act reform, and maritime security policy.
Publication Spotlight
On the Ongoing Jones Act Waiver
The Jones Act waiver has been extended to November 15, 2026. Overall, our brief analysis from when the original waiver was first announced still holds. We have also repeated our operational analysis of Jones Act vessels during this waiver period, finding no impact from waiver voyages, and released preliminary findings on what the waiver voyages tell us about demand suppressed by the Jones Act.
While we are gathering data to conduct an analysis of its impact on Jones Act shipping routes, our focus remains on answering systemic questions rather than running commentary: What would it take to make American shipbuilding competitive? Which industries would be most impacted by Jones Act repeal, in which direction, and to what extent? What does a credible path to reform look like?
The Jones Act Index
Our hypothesis: The work necessary to get good policy implemented is slow, expensive, unglamorous, and subject to adverse selection. Efforts flounder or are trapped in limbo, as policymakers are required to focus a substantial portion of their time on navigating internal policies and politics inside institutions, reinforcing party lines, and pleasing donor bases.
They are not being given the adequate time and resources necessary to repeal bad laws, and write good replacements.
Balsa Research is an experiment in one way out of the incentive trap: we seek funding only from deeply aligned donors, and work with deliberation to generate value that is free for anyone to use. We focus on high-leverage policy work that foregrounds actually solving the problems that block policymakers from designing and implementing good policy.
Other Research Areas
Reforming NEPA to better safeguard our environment and communities.
Improving federal housing policy to address the housing crisis.
Broadly, Balsa Research models issues, funds academic studies, and drafts viable reform legislation for policy areas that we consider to be neglected or high-leverage. Ultimately, we want to help thoughtfully develop shovel-ready policies that address core underlying human needs and promote civilizational flourishing.