Blogs
To Tax or Not to Tax: Making a High-Quality State Revenue/Tax System
By James Mak When Hawaii’s state lawmakers gather each year at the State Capitol to begin their annual legislative session, tinkering with the tax system always seems to consume much of their work. Hawaii citizens can count on seeing a slew of bills introduced to raise taxes on somebody while other bills are introduced to […]
Read MoreJust Published: “Macroeconomic Forecasting in the Era of Big Data”
By Peter Fuleky Big data analysis has a long history in macroeconomics. In 1937, National Bureau of Economic Research researchers Wesley Mitchell and Arthur Burns used 487 monthly and quarterly economic time series to advise policy makers on the state of the US business cycle. Since then advances in information technology and its ubiquitous use […]
Read MoreLittle relief from Hawaii’s high cost of living
By Rachel Inafuku and Peter Fuleky Living in paradise comes at a cost. Hawaii is notorious for its combination of high costs of living and low incomes relative to these costs. These factors impose hardships on Hawaii families of modest-to-moderate income and prompt some to consider relocating to less-expensive mainland locales. So how expensive is it […]
Read MoreForest protection provides important cost savings to water utility on Maui
By Leah Bremer Researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization and Water Resources Research Center partnered with the Nature Conservancy of Hawaiʻi to evaluate how native forest conservation contributes to local water supplies in a water stressed area in East Maui. They found that by preventing the degradation of native forest, conservation efforts […]
Read MoreJones Act
By Will Olney The Merchant Marine Act of 1920, commonly known as the Jones Act, is a cabotage law that requires that all goods transported via water between two U.S. points be carried on ships that are American built, owned, crewed, and flagged 1. The Jones Act was passed in response to World War I, […]
Read MoreTariff Peril
By Byron Gangnes, Peter Fuleky, and Carl Bonham In a Sunday Tweet, President Trump threatened this week to increase dramatically the tariffs he has placed on imports from China. The aggressive trade policies of the administration and retaliation by foreign countries are already having an adverse impact on the US, China, and other trade partners. […]
Read MoreThe Impact of Medicaid on Health Care Utilization among Hawai‘i’s COFA Migrants
By Timothy Halliday and Randall Q Akee The Compacts of Free Association (COFA) are treaties between the United States (US) and three Micronesian nations: the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia. Collectively, citizens of these nations are often referred to as “Micronesians.” COFA guarantees Micronesians free […]
Read MoreHow high is too high? What’s known and unknown about minimum wage increases
By Ashley Hirashima and Carl Bonham In 2014, while the legislature was debating Senate Bill 2609, which eventually raised Hawaii’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10, we wrote about the growing body of evidence that small minimum wage increases reduce poverty and have little or no adverse effects on employment levels. At the same time, […]
Read MoreBiocultural Restoration Workday Draws Community Together to Plant an Agroforest
By Zoe Hastings, Mahealani Botelho, and Leah Bremer 1 “I ola ʽoe, i ola mākou nei.” A community member recites the pule (blessing), “my life is dependent on yours, your life is dependent on mine”, to a native aʽaʽliʽi shrub as she gently tucks them into the ground. The side of the ridge is a […]
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