Blogs

Potential opportunities to diversify the economy of Hawaiʻi

July 2, 2024

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 these issues—which became especially […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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Unclaimed: Over $15 million in Tax Credits for Low Income Households

April 29, 2024

By Dylan T. Moore (UHERO) & Baybars Karacaovali (Office of Tax Research and Planning, Hawai’i Department of Taxation) In 2021, low-income households in Hawaii were eligible for about $42 million through the state’s refundable food/excise income tax credit. But over one third—or $15.3 million—of this money went unclaimed. These estimates come from a new analysis […]

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Delinquencies have spiked in the aftermath of the Maui wildfires

March 21, 2024

By Daniela Bond-Smith The devastating Maui wildfires destroyed most of Lahaina and displaced thousands of residents. But many Lahaina homeowners still have mortgages on their properties despite not having a home to go back to. As of the 2020 Census, almost three-quarters (74%; 1309 out of 1773) of Lahaina homeowners did not own their home free […]

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The Gender Pay Gap in Hawaii

March 12, 2024

By Rachel Inafuku In recognition of International Women’s Day, which was recently celebrated on March 8, UHERO wishes to underscore the importance of women in the workforce by highlighting research on the gender pay gap in Hawaii that was presented in our latest forecast report. Please keep an eye out for forthcoming research that explores […]

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The supply side: AI, immigration, and non-inflationary growth

February 21, 2024

By Byron Gangnes Home from last week’s National Association for Business Economics Policy Conference in Washington DC. Not surprisingly, many of the sessions ended up touching on some aspects of artificial intelligence (AI). Back to this in a minute. But one topic that showed up in several sessions was how the supply side of the […]

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Could the markets be right about coming Fed rate cuts?

January 19, 2024

By Byron Gangnes There is a marked difference between what Fed officials expect about their likely rate cuts this year and what the financial markets expect. According to the median estimate of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members at their December 2023 meeting, three quarter-point cuts in the federal funds rate are likely this year. […]

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Social, economic, and health impacts of the Red Hill fuel spill: preliminary survey results

January 18, 2024

By Leah Bremer, Tara Sutton, Ruben Juarez, Nicole Siegal, Nathan DeMaagd *University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization (UHERO), Water Resources Research Center (WRRC), Department of Geography and Environment, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. BackgroundOn November 20, 2021 the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility leaked approximately 19,000 gallons of jet fuel into the Pearl Harbor […]

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