Economy
Potential Benefits, Impacts, and Public Opinion of Seawater Air Conditioning in Waikiki
This report provides a summary of an investigation by the University of Hawai‘i Sea Grant College Program into the viability and effectiveness of installing a seawater air conditioning district cooling system in Waikīkī. Seawater air conditioning (SWAC) harnesses the cooling properties of cold seawater to provide cool air for air conditioning purposes. In doing so, […]
Read MoreBenchmark Revision of Non-Farm Payrolls
The annual benchmark revision of employment statistics from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicated that 4,000 more jobs were created in Hawaii over the past two years than previously thought. The benchmarking process is an annual revision that incorporates unemployment insurance tax records to supplement preliminary payroll estimates, which are based on employer […]
Read MoreAn Update on Inflation Expectations
Despite the consumer price index only growing by a moderate 2% over the 12 months ending in February, some investors are worried about the possibility of higher inflation in the coming years. They can take advantage of Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, or TIPS, a bond type whose payments increase as the consumer price index rises, […]
Read MoreYellen: How The Fed Will Know When To Stop
Federal Reserve Board Vice Chair Janet Yellen has laid out the argument for continued Fed action and the conditions the Fed will watch when deciding to ease off monetary stimulus. In remarks to the policy conference of the National Association for Business Economics in Washington DC last week, Yellen elaborated on the Federal Open Market […]
Read MoreThe Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative (HCEI): Watt, Me Worry?
The connection between the emerging field of sustainability science and the economics of sustainable development has motivated a line on interdisciplinary research inspired by the notion of “positive sustainability.” This notion is founded on three principles or pillars: (1) adopting a complex systems approach to modeling and analysis, integrating natural resource systems, the environment, and […]
Read MoreEconomists Debate How Quick to Cut
At the start of the first post-sequester week, economists at the annual policy conference of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) in Washington D.C. debated options for U.S. fiscal policy. Two leading figures from the right and the left took starkly different views of where policy should head in the near term, but agreed on (at […]
Read MoreAirlines Bet Big On Hawaii With 275,000 Additional Seats
The latest infrastructure report from the Hawaii Tourism Authority suggests that airlines are betting big on Hawaii and increasing airlift to the state. HTA expects the number of seats on direct flights to Hawaii will exceed 2.6 M for the three month period between February and April 2013. This is an increase of more than 11% from […]
Read MoreShould we increase Hawaii’s minimum wage?
The following post is excerpted from UHERO’s Brief “Should we increase Hawaii’s minimum wage?” Raising the minimum wage may be one of the hottest issues of this years’ legislative session. Two bills have been introduced to increase the minimum wage and both bills also propose indexing the minimum wage so that it is adjusted for future inflation. President […]
Read MoreBrief: Should we increase Hawaii’s minimum wage?
A higher minimum wage is unlikely to accomplish the stated goal of raising the living standards of the working poor. And given Hawaii’s highly service oriented economy, the negative impact of an increased minimum wage may have a larger impact than in other states.
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