Blogs
Tariff 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 […]
Read MoreBenchmarking for a clearer employment picture
By Peter Fuleky, James Jones, Ashley Hirashima, and Rachel Inafuku The most widely cited measure of labor market activity in Hawaii comes from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program, jointly managed by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR). This program surveys a sample of local […]
Read MoreSome thoughts on property taxes and school funding
By Carl Bonham and James Mak Voters will soon be weighing in on a possible amendment to Hawaii’s constitution. The ballot question is, “Shall the legislature be authorized to establish, as provided by law, a surcharge on investment real property to be used to support public education?” 1 Unfortunately, this language provides no definition of […]
Read MoreVog: Using Volcanic Eruptions to Estimate the Health Costs of Particulate
By Tim Halliday, John Lynham, and Aureo de Paula Since its inception, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States has proven itself to be effective at reducing air pollution. For the six ‘criteria’ pollutants that the EPA is mandated to regulate, emissions of all six have declined substantially. Particulates have declined by 38% […]
Read MoreVariable Pricing and the Cost of Renewable Power
By Michael Roberts How much will it cost to eliminate use of fossil fuels? There is reason for optimism. Technological progress has lowered the cost of wind and solar power to make them competitive with coal and natural gas on a levelized basis. Despite this progress, a recent study by Gowrisankaran, Reynolds and Samano, “Intermittency […]
Read MoreIs the Hawaii Convention Center Profitable?
By James Mak In his testimony before the House Committee on Tourism on February 13, 2018, Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) CEO George Szegeti said “In CY2017 the convention center turned a net operating profit of $1.1 million, marking its second consecutive year of profitability.” This is surprising news, indeed. Convention centers in the U.S. are […]
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