A Proposal for Real-Time Pricing Tariffs for Large Electricity CustomersAugust 27, 2024As Oahu’s electric grid transitions to clean energy, characterized by variable wind, solar, and storage resources, the marginal cost of electricity will become increasingly variable across time and location. Consequently, the value of using locational marginal prices (LMP) for customer billing and compensating distributed generation will increase significantly. This report outlines a proposal to implement… Read More
Rural Health Disparities in Hawai‘iAugust 25, 2024This report examines the health disparities between rural and non-rural areas in Hawai‘i, using data from the June 2023 UHERO Rapid Survey. While rural areas offer benefits like proximity to nature and strong community ties, they also face challenges such as reduced access to quality healthcare. Our analysis reveals significant health disparities, particularly among people… Read More
Which College Majors Pay the Most in Hawaiʻi and the US?August 22, 2024By Rachel Inafuku and Tim Halliday Despite recent discussions in the popular press, a college degree is well worth its investment. In a recent UHERO report, we demonstrated that the lifetime earnings of graduates from the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) with bachelor’s degrees were 27% higher than those of observationally similar people who exited UH… Read More
The Maui Wildfire Exposure Study receives a $1.4M grant from NIHAugust 6, 2024The Maui Wildfire Exposure Study (MauiWES) led by Ruben Juarez (UHERO) and Alika Maunakea (JABSOM) has received a $1.4 million grant from the NIH to help fund the research of the long term health and social impacts of the Maui wildfires. https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2024/08/06/nih-grant-maui-wes/ Read More
How Expanding Access to Preschool Can Benefit Hawaii’s FutureAugust 1, 2024By: Rachel Inafuku The State of Hawaii has identified a significant gap in preschool enrollment among its youngest learners. Of the 33,224 3- and 4-year olds in the state, only 55% are currently enrolled in preschool programs. While about 20% of families with children in this age group choose to opt out of preschool, there… Read More
Why Not Just Tax Them? A Middle Ground on Addressing Short-Term RentalsJuly 29, 2024By Dylan Moore Maui is at a crossroads, grappling with a severe housing crisis exacerbated by last year's wildfires. In response, Mayor Richard Bissen has proposed a ban on short-term rentals (STRs) in the hopes of converting the approximately 6172 homes on Maui that are currently used as STRs into long-term housing. While this plan… Read More
UHERO welcomes Trey GordnerJuly 3, 2024We are pleased to welcome Trey Gordner, who joined UHERO in June as a Policy Researcher/Data Scientist and was recently named a Lincoln Institute Vibrant Communities Fellow. Trey's research will focus primarily on housing affordability and Maui wildfire recovery. Most recently, Trey directed the Hawaii Zoning Atlas--a statewide data advocacy project seeking to reduce the… Read More
Potential opportunities to diversify the economy of Hawai‘iJuly 2, 2024Read the summary blog post. The economy of Hawai‘i is extraordinarily concentrated in the tourism industry. As a result of tourism’s dominance, Hawai‘i’s economy faces short-term risks from shocks that impact visitor numbers and long-term stagnation from flat and volatile tourism spending over the last three decades. In response to these issues—which became especially salient… Read More
Potential opportunities to diversify the economy of HawaiʻiJuly 2, 2024Read the full report By: Steven Bond-Smith and Sumit Ilamkar The economy of Hawaiʻi is extraordinarily concentrated in the tourism industry. As a result of tourism’s dominance, Hawaiʻi's economy faces short-term risks from shocks that impact visitor numbers and long-term stagnation from flat and volatile tourism spending over the last three decades. In response to… Read More
Work-from-Home, Relocation, and Shadow Effects: Evidence from SwedenJuly 1, 2024In this paper, we explore some little-known, but significant, economic geography features of the work-from-home (WFH) revolution. The increased practice of work from home following the pandemic has prompted a redistribution of working populations between urban and rural locations. Using a uniquely detailed and comprehensive individual-level nationwide Swedish micro-dataset, we analyze shifts in commuting distances… Read More
Maui Short-Term Rentals, the Minatoya List, and Housing SupplyJune 25, 2024By Justin Tyndall and Emi Kim Recent state legislation has given counties new powers to regulate Transient Vacation Rental (TVR) properties. A proposal on Maui would significantly reduce the number of TVRs by withdrawing permission to operate for over 7,000 properties. Below, we briefly summarize the policy proposal and discuss the characteristics of the units… Read More
Exploring the Gender Pay Gap in Hawai‘iMay 28, 2024The US has made substantial progress in closing the historical earnings gap between men and women, but data from the American Community Survey (ACS) shows that from 2015 to 2022 full-time working women in the US earned 84 cents for every dollar a man made. In Hawai‘i, full-time women fared slightly better, making 86 cents… Read More
Japan Update: Struggling to escape inflation’s dragMay 21, 2024By Byron Gangnes Like all countries, Japan was hit hard by COVID-19, and the economy has struggled to get back on track since. Some headwinds are familiar to Japan: the softness in foreign markets has hurt an economy for which exports remain an important source of growth. But the pandemic’s aftermath also brought very unfamiliar… Read More
The Hawaii Housing Factbook 2024May 20, 2024The past year has brought significant shocks to the housing market in Hawai‘i. In 2023, only one in five local households could afford a mortgage on the median-priced single-family home in the state. High interest rates make it difficult to finance a home purchase, difficult for developers to finance new construction, and disrupts the filtering… Read More
A Proposal for Real-Time Pricing Tariffs for Large Electricity Customers August 27, 2024 As Oahu’s electric grid transitions to clean energy, characterized by variable wind, solar, and storage resources, the marginal cost of electricity will become increasingly variable across time and location. Consequently, the value of using locational marginal prices (LMP) for customer billing and compensating distributed generation will increase significantly. This report outlines a proposal to implement… Read More
Rural Health Disparities in Hawai‘i August 25, 2024 This report examines the health disparities between rural and non-rural areas in Hawai‘i, using data from the June 2023 UHERO Rapid Survey. While rural areas offer benefits like proximity to nature and strong community ties, they also face challenges such as reduced access to quality healthcare. Our analysis reveals significant health disparities, particularly among people… Read More
Which College Majors Pay the Most in Hawaiʻi and the US? August 22, 2024 By Rachel Inafuku and Tim Halliday Despite recent discussions in the popular press, a college degree is well worth its investment. In a recent UHERO report, we demonstrated that the lifetime earnings of graduates from the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) with bachelor’s degrees were 27% higher than those of observationally similar people who exited UH… Read More
The Maui Wildfire Exposure Study receives a $1.4M grant from NIH August 6, 2024 The Maui Wildfire Exposure Study (MauiWES) led by Ruben Juarez (UHERO) and Alika Maunakea (JABSOM) has received a $1.4 million grant from the NIH to help fund the research of the long term health and social impacts of the Maui wildfires. https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2024/08/06/nih-grant-maui-wes/ Read More
How Expanding Access to Preschool Can Benefit Hawaii’s Future August 1, 2024 By: Rachel Inafuku The State of Hawaii has identified a significant gap in preschool enrollment among its youngest learners. Of the 33,224 3- and 4-year olds in the state, only 55% are currently enrolled in preschool programs. While about 20% of families with children in this age group choose to opt out of preschool, there… Read More
Why Not Just Tax Them? A Middle Ground on Addressing Short-Term Rentals July 29, 2024 By Dylan Moore Maui is at a crossroads, grappling with a severe housing crisis exacerbated by last year's wildfires. In response, Mayor Richard Bissen has proposed a ban on short-term rentals (STRs) in the hopes of converting the approximately 6172 homes on Maui that are currently used as STRs into long-term housing. While this plan… Read More
UHERO welcomes Trey Gordner July 3, 2024 We are pleased to welcome Trey Gordner, who joined UHERO in June as a Policy Researcher/Data Scientist and was recently named a Lincoln Institute Vibrant Communities Fellow. Trey's research will focus primarily on housing affordability and Maui wildfire recovery. Most recently, Trey directed the Hawaii Zoning Atlas--a statewide data advocacy project seeking to reduce the… Read More
Potential opportunities to diversify the economy of Hawai‘i July 2, 2024 Read the summary blog post. The economy of Hawai‘i is extraordinarily concentrated in the tourism industry. As a result of tourism’s dominance, Hawai‘i’s economy faces short-term risks from shocks that impact visitor numbers and long-term stagnation from flat and volatile tourism spending over the last three decades. In response to these issues—which became especially salient… Read More
Work-from-Home, Relocation, and Shadow Effects: Evidence from Sweden July 1, 2024 In this paper, we explore some little-known, but significant, economic geography features of the work-from-home (WFH) revolution. The increased practice of work from home following the pandemic has prompted a redistribution of working populations between urban and rural locations. Using a uniquely detailed and comprehensive individual-level nationwide Swedish micro-dataset, we analyze shifts in commuting distances… Read More
Maui Short-Term Rentals, the Minatoya List, and Housing Supply June 25, 2024 By Justin Tyndall and Emi Kim Recent state legislation has given counties new powers to regulate Transient Vacation Rental (TVR) properties. A proposal on Maui would significantly reduce the number of TVRs by withdrawing permission to operate for over 7,000 properties. Below, we briefly summarize the policy proposal and discuss the characteristics of the units… Read More
Exploring the Gender Pay Gap in Hawai‘i May 28, 2024 The US has made substantial progress in closing the historical earnings gap between men and women, but data from the American Community Survey (ACS) shows that from 2015 to 2022 full-time working women in the US earned 84 cents for every dollar a man made. In Hawai‘i, full-time women fared slightly better, making 86 cents… Read More
Japan Update: Struggling to escape inflation’s drag May 21, 2024 By Byron Gangnes Like all countries, Japan was hit hard by COVID-19, and the economy has struggled to get back on track since. Some headwinds are familiar to Japan: the softness in foreign markets has hurt an economy for which exports remain an important source of growth. But the pandemic’s aftermath also brought very unfamiliar… Read More
The Hawaii Housing Factbook 2024 May 20, 2024 The past year has brought significant shocks to the housing market in Hawai‘i. In 2023, only one in five local households could afford a mortgage on the median-priced single-family home in the state. High interest rates make it difficult to finance a home purchase, difficult for developers to finance new construction, and disrupts the filtering… Read More
Recent findings from the Maui Wildfire Exposure Study featured in The Washington Post May 15, 2024 Months after Maui fires, residents report troubling health problems A new report details respiratory ailments, mental health conditions and lack of access to medical care following the deadly fire in Lahaina in August. Read More