Sumner La Croix
The Maui County Comprehensive Affordable Housing Plan: Understanding its Pros and Cons and Ideas for How to Improve it
By Carl Bonham and Sumner La Croix A team of 19 planners, engineers, data and policy analysts, attorneys, and community development professionals has developed a comprehensive plan for the development of affordable housing in Maui County. The Maui County Comprehensive Affordable Housing Plan is a major step forward in developing coherent strategies to address Maui […]
Read MoreAustralia’s Forgotten Copper Mining Boom: Understanding How South Australia Avoided Dutch Disease, 1843–1850
Abstract: Great Britain established the new colony of South Australia (SA) in 1834, and migration from Britain to the colony began in 1836. After seven turbulent years, the discovery of two large deposits of copper at Kapunda (1843–4) and Burra (1844–5) renewed the colony’s economic prospects. Over the 1845–50 period, SA supplied roughly 9 per […]
Read MoreIs a Carbon Tax Viable for a Small Island Economy?
By Maja Schjervheim, Paul Bernstein, Sumner La Croix, Makena Coffman, and Sherilyn Hayashida For the third year in a row, a carbon tax bill fizzled out at the Hawaiʻi State Legislature. Perhaps it was the difficult timing of introducing a new tax in the wake of a pandemic. Perhaps it was due to qualms regarding […]
Read MoreTraffic in Honolulu: How to Make Transitory Pandemic Gains Permanent
By Justin Tyndall and Sumner La Croix During the COVID-19 pandemic, Honolulu traffic became much less congested. Local and state governments could help residents keep the social benefits from traffic control by providing incentives to private firms to stagger hours and/or keep more employees working at home. A congestion zone fee to drive within the downtown-to-Waikiki corridor […]
Read MoreThe Hawaii Film Tax Credit: An Update
By Sumner La Croix and James Mak In 1997, Hawaii was one of the first states to grant tax credits to attract content producers to film their projects in the state. As of January 2021, 32 states offer tax credits to defray qualifying expenses of filming movie/TV productions. The competition to attract film/TV productions now […]
Read MoreUnderstanding the Role of the Hawaii Film/TV/Digital Production Tax Credit In Diversifying the Hawaii Economy
By Sumner La Croix and James Mak Hawaii is one of 32 states in 2020 to offer a tax credit to film, TV, and digital productions through the Hawaii Motion Picture, Digital Media and Film Production Tax Credit (hereafter “film credit”). Since the passage of the film credit in 2006, spending in Hawaii on TV/film […]
Read MoreReviving Agriculture to Diversify Hawaii’s Economy
Hawaii state policymakers have identified agriculture as a sector capable of substantial expansion as part of the state’s efforts to diversify the economy. Agriculture has, however, been in decline in Hawaii for the last 40 years despite the presence of two state programs designed to keep lands in agriculture (the Important Agricultural Lands (IAL) program) […]
Read MoreThe Hawaii Research Activity Tax Credit: Is It Effective and How Can It Be Improved?
In 2013, the Hawaii State Legislature enacted a tax credit for Hawaii technology firms engaged in qualified research activities satisfying requirements for the federal research tax credit. After reviewing studies in the economics literature on the effectiveness of research tax credits in other states and countries, we conclude that a research tax credit can be […]
Read MoreUnique pattern of COVID-19 infection in the State of Hawai‘i
UHERO’s Sumner La Croix and coauthors published “Unique pattern of COVID-19 infection in the State of Hawai‘i” in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, and find that Pacific Islanders are 4% of the population and almost 30% of COVID-19 cases, an epidemic within an epidemic in Hawai‘i. Miller FD, La Croix S, Brown T, Ramsey […]
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