Blogs
Linking climate, forests, and limu: Examining the influence of environmental change on groundwater dependent ecosystems in Kona
By Leah Bremer, Brytne Okuhata, Jade Delevaux, Angela Richards Doná, Celia Smith, Veronica Gibson, Henrietta Dulai, Aly El Kadi, Kosta Stamoulis, Kimberly Burnett, Christopher Wada Summary: Climate change and increased groundwater pumping are likely to increase the habitat suitability of an invasive seaweed and decrease the abundance of a native and culturally important limu species […]
Read MoreAre stock investors crazy?
By Byron Gangnes Stock prices are at a very high level, and yet investors have not pulled back. What gives? How should we think about stock market values? In the long run, the price of a share of common stock should depend on the expected future stream of company earnings. Even growth stocks—which tend to […]
Read MoreHow high are interest rates really?
By Byron Gangnes The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates sharply over the past fifteen months, and Fed officials have signaled that perhaps two more quarter point hikes are coming. How high are interest rates compared with past Fed tightening episodes? Are they high considering the state of the US economy? First, a little about […]
Read MoreHawaii’s long-term economic recovery after COVID-19
By Steven Bond-Smith The following is adapted from a speech I recently gave at the Western Regional Science Association meetings on the Big Island. My research focuses on the implications of theoretical regional economic models for small and isolated places, like Hawaii. These are places where distance matters such that they are generally unable to […]
Read MoreAre Businesses Heavily Taxed in Hawai’i?
By James Mak A recent report—Total State and Local Business Taxes—published by Ernst & Young LLP, State Tax Research Institute, and Council on State Taxation presents detailed state-by-state estimates of state and local taxes paid by businesses in Fiscal Year 2021. The report (hereafter referred to as the Ernst & Young report) is in its […]
Read MoreFifth time’s a charm!
By John Lynham PhD student Adrian Amaya and UHERO Research Fellow John Lynham recently started working on a new NSF-funded $1.6 million project entitled “Pathways and constraints to adaptation in coastal social-environmental systems”. The project is a collaborative research endeavor, both across institutions and academic disciplines: it brings together marine biologists, oceanographers, economists, anthropologists, and […]
Read MoreIs inflation going the Fed’s way? Depends where you’re looking.
By Byron Gangnes The Fed’s war on inflation has been underway for more than a year. Interest rates have been driven up sharply, with consequences for the macroeconomic outlook—will the economy just slow or drop into a steep recession—but also for households and businesses right now. Many families have been priced out of the housing […]
Read MoreHawai‘i Should Adopt a “Whole of Government” Approach to Destination Management
Paul Brewbaker, Frank Haas, and James Mak Hawai‘i has a long history of publishing community-based tourism plans with various version of these plans going back to the 1970s. Despite these well-intentioned efforts, tourism in Hawai‘i has not been effectively managed and has, thus far, been unable to achieve the vision articulated by the Hawai‘i Tourism […]
Read MoreShort-term Vacation Rentals and Housing Costs in Hawaiʻi
By Rachel Inafuku and Justin Tyndall Of the state’s 565,000 total housing units, 30,000 are listed as Short-term Vacation Rentals (STRs), meaning roughly 5% of local housing units operate as tourist accommodations. In a tight housing market with high prices and barriers to creating new supply, removing supply from the long-term housing market could harm […]
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