Interstate Migration of College Freshmen: An Economic Analysis

We examine the economic determinants of interstate migration of college-bound freshmen, using state-level data. Our analysis provides a richer explanation of the striking differences among the U.S. states in out-migration of college-bound freshmen. States that provide more educational choices and higher quality education services, charge lower tuition, have broad-based merit scholarship programs and have lower income levels tend to retain a higher percentage of their college-bound freshmen at home.

Terrorism and Tourism in the Asia Pacific Region: Is Travel and Tourism in a New World After 9/11?

The paper reviews trends in travel and tourism in selected Asia Pacific countries before and after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11) to consider the question of whether or not global tourism has fundamentally changed since 9/11. Tourism is an important economic sector in several Asia Pacific countries and is a "fragile" industry in that it is highly susceptible to external shocks such as wars, outbreaks of deadly contagious diseases, incidents of terrorism, and so on. The first part of the paper presents a stylized picture of industry response following terrorist incidents and other major negative shocks to tourism, and reviews international tourist arrivals at selected Asia Pacific destinations. A richer body of data available for Japan and the U.S. allows examination of the extent of substitution between domestic and international travel, and the impact of changed travel behavior on tourist spending. The paper finds that there has been significant substitution of domestic travel for overseas travel by nationals of both countries after 9/11, and that this has had a dramatic impact on the Hawaii tourism market. The paper explores some of the reasons for the differences observed in post-9/11 travel recoveries across Asia Pacific countries.

Political Economy of Property Tax Reform: Hawaii’s Experiment with Split Rate Property Taxation

Economic theory suggests that switching from a general property tax to a split-rate tax increases land use efficiency and stimulates urban core development while preserving the environment and reducing urban sprawl. Under split-rate property taxation, land is typically taxed at a significantly higher rate than improvements. Beginning in 1965 Hawaii experimented with a statewide split-rate property tax system to encourage economic growth and effect land reform. The experiment was ended in 1977. Following the transfer of property taxing powers to the counties in 1978, some counties brought back the split-rate property tax at times. Since 2006, Kauai County has adopted the unusual practice of taxing improvements at a higher rate than land for most property classes. This paper chronicles and explains the rationale behind Hawaii state and county experiments with split rate property taxation.Property taxes, split rate property taxation, tourist taxes

Resonance Raman Spectroscopic Studies of Hydroperoxo Derivatives of Cobalt-substituted Myoglobin

Recent progress in generating and stabilizing reactive heme protein enzymatic intermediates by cryoradiolytic reduction has prompted application of a range of spectroscopic approaches to effectively interrogate these species. The impressive potential of resonance Raman spectroscopy for characterizing such samples has been recently demonstrated in a number of studies of peroxo- and hydroperoxo-intermediates. While it is anticipated that this approach can be productively applied to the wide range of heme proteins whose reaction cycles naturally involve these peroxo- and hydroperoxo-intermediates, one limitation that sometimes arises is the lack of enhancement of the key intraligand ν(O–O) stretching mode in the native systems. The present work was undertaken to explore the utility of cobalt substitution to enhance both the ν(Co–O) and ν(O–O) modes of the CoOOH fragments of hydroperoxo forms of heme proteins bearing a trans–axial histidine linkage. Thus, having recently completed RR studies of hydroperoxo myoglobin, attention is now turned to its cobalt-substituted analogue. Spectra are acquired for samples prepared with 16O2 and 18O2 to reveal the ν(M–O) and ν(O–O) modes, the latter indeed being observed only for the cobalt-substituted proteins. In addition, spectra of samples prepared in deuterated solvents were also acquired, providing definitive evidence for the presence of the hydroperoxo-species

The Impact of 9/11 and Other Terrible Global Events on Tourism in the U.S. and Hawaii

This paper reviews recent trends in travel and tourism in the U.S. and Hawaii to ascertain how the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and subsequent terrible global events affected their tourism flows and the manner and pace of their recovery. We note that tourism in the U.S. has not fully recovered from 9/11 and other international shocks; indeed recovery of international travel to the U.S. may be a long way off. By contrast, Hawaii tourism is enjoying robust growth in the aftermath of 9/11 as growth in tourist arrivals from the U.S. mainland has more than offset declines in Japanese and other international visitors. We suggest that Hawaii's current tourism boom is in part explained by the diversion of U.S. travel from foreign travel. The paper demonstrates the usefulness of vector error correction models to generate dynamic visitor forecasts which we use to ascertain whether tourism in Hawaii has fully recovered from 9/11 and other terrible international events. The paper considers policy options for facilitating the recovery of international tourism to the U.S.

Impact of Population Aging on Japanese International Travel

In this paper we forecast Japanese international travel to 2025. In addition to the usual economic variables, our model also captures both population aging and cohort effects on Japanese travel abroad. We predict the number of future Japanese overseas trips for males and females separately by five-year age groups and in five-year increments. We conclude that the Japanese will continue to travel abroad in increasing numbers but population aging will dramatically slow overall future Japanese overseas travel. While the number of “senior” travelers is predicted to increase sharply, we foresee fewer overseas trips taken by Japanese, especially among women, in the 20s and early 30s age groups. Finally, we examine the responses of the industry and the public sector in Japan to implications of a rapidly aging population on future international travel

Tourism's Forward and Backward Linkages

This paper proposes “linkage analysis” as a complement to the traditional “tourism impact analysis” to examine tourism’s economic imprints on a destination’s economy. Although related, the two methods are not the same. The starting point of tourism “impact analysis” is “final demand”; impact analysis measures the direct and indirect impacts of tourist spending on the local economy. By contrast, the starting point of “linkage analysis” is the tourism sector; the analysis examines the strengths of the inter-sectoral forward (FL) and backward (BL) relationships between the tourism sector and the non-tourism industries in the rest of the economy. The FL measures the relative importance of the tourism sector as supplier to the other (non-tourism) industries in the economy whereas the BL measures its relative importance as demander. Directly applying conventional linkage analysis to tourism is not straightforward because tourism is not a defined industry. Thus we develop a methodology to calculate tourism’s forward and backward linkages using information from national, regional, or local input-output tables and demonstrate its utility by applying it to Hawaii.

Impact of Population Aging on Japanese International Travel to 2025

In this paper we forecast Japanese international travel to 2025. In addition, to the usual economic variables, our model also captured both populations again and cohort effects on Japanese travel abroad. We predict the number of future Japanese overseas trips for males and females separately by five-year age groups and in five-year increments. We conclude that the Japanese will continue to travel abroad in increasing numbers but population aging will dramatically slow overall future Japanese overseas travel. While the number of "senior" travelers is predicted to increase sharply, we foresee fewer overseas trips taken by Japanese, especially among women, in the 20s and early 30s age groups. Finally, we examine the responses of the industry and the public sector in Japan to implications of a rapidly aging population on future international travel.

Resonance Raman Interrogation of the Consequences of Heme Rotational Disorder in Myoglobin and its Ligated Derivatives

Resonance Raman spectroscopy is employed to characterize heme site structural changes arising from conformational heterogeneity in deoxyMb and ligated derivatives, i.e., the ferrous CO (MbCO) and ferric cyanide (MbCN) complexes. The spectra for the reversed forms of these derivatives have been extracted from the spectra of reconstituted samples. Dramatic changes in the low-frequency spectra are observed, where newly observed RR modes of the reversed forms are assigned using protohemes that are selectively deuterated at the four methyl groups or at the four methine carbons. Interestingly, while substantial changes in the disposition of the peripheral vinyl and propionate groups can be inferred from the dramatic spectral shifts, the bonds to the internal histidyl imidazole ligand and those of the Fe−CO and Fe−CN fragments are not significantly affected by the heme rotation, as judged by lack of significant shifts in the ν(Fe−NHis), ν(Fe−C), and ν(C−O) modes. In fact, the apparent lack of an effect on these key vibrational parameters of the Fe−NHis, Fe−CO, and Fe−CN fragments is entirely consistent with previously reported equilibrium and kinetic studies that document virtually identical functional properties for the native and reversed forms