Congratulations to UHERO’s Peter FulekyFebruary 29, 2024Congratulations to UHERO's Peter Fuleky on being selected as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar for 2024-2025 for Hungary. Peter is UHERO's first Fulbright U.S. Scholar. Read More
After the Maui wildfires: The road ahead.August 31, 2023By Steven Bond-Smith, Daniela Bond-Smith, Carl Bonham, Leah Bremer, Kim Burnett, Makena Coffman, Peter Fuleky, Byron Gangnes, Rachel Inafuku, Ruben Juarez, Sumner La Croix, Colin Moore, Dylan Moore, Nori Tarui, Justin Tyndall, and Chris Wada The immediate recovery efforts from the devastating Maui wildfires continue, and at UHERO we share our community’s anguish over the… Read More
The effects of the pandemic on the economy of HawaiiDecember 9, 2022Abstract: Hawaii was vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic due to its reliance on tourism. This article analyzes the pandemic’s economic impact in Hawaii by comparing outcomes with the pre-pandemic forecast. We explain why Hawaii’s experience differed from other states, suggest reasons for a slow recovery, and discuss the pandemic’s lasting effects. Access Publication Working Paper… Read More
Tourism water use during the COVID-19 shutdown: A natural experiment in Hawai‘iSeptember 28, 2022By Nathan DeMaagd, Peter Fuleky, Kimberly Burnett, and Christopher Wada A recent study published in the Annals of Tourism Research used the shutdown of tourism in Hawai‘i during the COVID-19 pandemic to shed light on the relationship between tourism and water use on O‘ahu. The importance of water management is accentuated when there is near… Read More
Tourism water use during the COVID-19 shutdown: A natural experiment in Hawai‘iSeptember 28, 2022Abstract: Many popular tourist destinations are on small islands whose resources are in limited supply, and the effects of climate change and burgeoning tourism tend to worsen the outlook. In this study, we identify the relationship between tourism and water use on the Hawaiian island of O‘ahu. Hawai‘i closed almost entirely to tourism during the… Read More
The effects of the pandemic on the economy of HawaiiJuly 31, 2022The economy of Hawaii was extremely vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic due to its heavy reliance on tourism. This article is a thorough survey of issues affecting a tourism-dependent open economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. We provide a comprehensive analysis of the pandemic’s economic impact in Hawaii by comparing the actual outcomes during the affected… Read More
Bird’s eye view of COVID-19, mobility, and labor market outcomes across the USDecember 30, 2021COVID-19 dealt a formidable blow to the US economy. We present a joint analysis of the epidemiological and labor market outcomes across US states. We focus on the relationship across relevant indicators in the pre-vaccination era. As expected, we find strong correlation between changes in economic conditions and mobility. However, mobility fluctuations tend to be… Read More
Tourism Water Use During the COVID-19 Shutdown A natural experiment in Hawai‘iNovember 1, 2021Many of the most popular tourist destinations are on small islands whose resources are in limited supply, and the effects of climate change and increasing tourism tend to worsen the outlook. In this study, we identify the relationship between tourism and water use on the Hawaiian island of O‘ahu. Hawai‘i closed almost entirely to tourism… Read More
COVID-19 infections, vaccines, and economic recoveryApril 16, 2021By Carl Bonham, Peter Fuleky, Byron Gangnes, and Justin Tyndall A year ago Hawaii was operating under its first COVID-19 Stay at Home Order. As business activity contracted, the state quickly shed more than 150,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate jumped from 2% to 22%. Today there is hope that the devastation brought by the… Read More
Nowcasting the Trajectory of the COVID-19 RecoveryApril 6, 2021I develop a weekly coincident index of economic activity in the State of Hawaii. The purpose of the index is to nowcast the recovery from the COVID-19 induced downturn. The index is the first principal component extracted from 18 daily and weekly state-level time series, it captures about 80% of the variation in the sample,… Read More
Estimating economic conditions during the COVID-19 crisisOctober 15, 2020By Carl Bonham and Peter Fuleky When the long-lived expansion of the past decade was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, many economists turned their attention to new sources of data to track economic conditions. The indicators we have used historically were not timely enough in the quickly changing economic landscape. Take for example gross domestic… Read More
Nowcasting the Trajectory of the COVID-19 Recovery: The Weekly UHERO Economic PulseSeptember 9, 2020By Peter Fuleky COVID-19 has brought the longest period of economic expansion in modern history to an abrupt halt. The pace and magnitude of decline in economic activity has been unprecedented, and the recovery ahead will likely be drawn-out and uneven. Making good business and public policy decisions in such a rapidly-changing environment requires data… Read More
Multipliers and the effectiveness of government policiesJune 4, 2020By Byron Gangnes, Rachel Inafuku, and Peter Fuleky The economic shutdown in Hawaii and elsewhere due to the novel coronavirus has led to sharp reductions in employment and private spending, as well as historically large government fiscal responses. Analysis of the effects of changes in government spending and employment policies requires estimates of how much… Read More