Bookshelf

Hawai‘i: Eight Hundred Years of Political and Economic Change

2019
by Sumner La Croix

Relative to the other habited places on our planet, Hawai‘i has a very short history. The Hawaiian archipelago was the last major land area on the planet to be settled, with Polynesians making the long voyage just under a millennium ago. Our understanding of the social, political, and economic changes that have unfolded since has been limited until recently by how little we knew about the first five centuries of settlement. Building on new archaeological and historical research, Sumner La Croix assembles here the economic history of Hawai‘i from the first Polynesian settlements in 1200 through US colonization, the formation of statehood, and to the present day. He shows how the political and economic institutions that emerged and evolved in Hawai‘i during its three centuries of global isolation allowed an economically and culturally rich society to emerge, flourish, and ultimately survive annexation and colonization by the United States. The story of a small, open economy struggling to adapt its institutions to changes in the global economy, Hawai‘i offers broadly instructive conclusions about economic evolution and development, political institutions, and native Hawaiian rights.

Can be purchased at: Amazon

Powering The Philippine Economy Electricity Economics And Policy

2018
Edited by Majah-V. Ravago, James A. Roumasset, and Rolando A. Danao

This book aims to synthesize the Energy Policy and Development Program or EPDP’s (2014-2018 USAID Grant) research endeavors and provide an economic reference on the Philippine power sector with practical insights and recommendations for energy stakeholders. It is divided into five sections, starting with an overview and synthesis. Section II sets the tone by providing an application of Public Economics to the Philippine power industry and a review of the country’s policy landscape. Section III covers optimal generation and electricity use. Section IV deals with prices and forecasting demand, Section V relates power and economic development. The last section is on institutions and the political economy of the power industry.

Can be purchased at: UP Press

Routledge Handbook of Water Economics and Institutions

2014
Edited by Kimberly Burnett, Richard Howitt, James A. Roumasset, and Christopher Wada

Growing scarcity of freshwater worldwide brings to light the need for sound water resource modeling and policy analysis. While a solid foundation has been established for many specific water management problems, combining those methods and principles in a unified framework remains an ongoing challenge. This Handbook aims to expand the scope of efficient water use to include allocation of sources and quantities across uses and time, as well as integrating demand-management with supply-side substitutes. Case studies from the United States, Australia, Europe, and Canada highlight the successes and remaining challenges of establishing efficient water markets.

Can be purchased at: Amazon

Sustainable Economic Development: Resources, Environment, and Institutions

October 2014
by Arsenio Balisacan (Editor), Ujjayant Chakravorty (Editor), Majah-Leah Ravago (Editor)

Sustainable Economic Development: Resources, Environment, and Institutions presents 25 articles that lay the foundations of sustainable development in a way that facilitates effective policy design. The editors mix broad thematic papers with focused micro-papers, balancing theories with policy designs. The book begins with two sections on sustainable development principles and practice and on specific settings where sustainable development is practiced. Two more sections illuminate institutions, governance, and political economy. Additional sections cover sustainable development and agriculture, and risk and economic security, including disaster management. This rich source of information should appeal to any institution involved in development work, and to development practitioners grappling with an array of difficult on-the-ground developmental challenges.

Can be purchased at: Amazon

Aging, Economic Growth, and Old-age Security in Asia

2012
by Donghyun Park, Sang-Hyop Lee and Andrew Mason

Population aging is perhaps the single biggest economic and social obstacle confronting Asia’s future. The region-wide demographic transition towards an older population is fundamentally reshaping the demographic landscape, and is giving rise to two key socio-economic challenges. This timely book provides an in-depth analysis of these challenges and presents concrete policy options for tackling them. First, the expert contributors argue, Asia must find ways to sustain rapid economic growth in the face of less favorable demographics, which implies slower growth of the workforce. Second, they contend, Asia must find ways to deliver affordable, adequate and sustainable old-age economic security for its growing elderly population.

Can be purchased at: Edward Elgar

Global Economic Crisis: Impacts, Transmission and Recovery

July 2012
Edited by Maurice Obstfeld, Dongchul Cho and Andrew Mason

The expert contributors compare the recent crisis with earlier crises, explore international aspects of the crisis from the perspectives of financial markets and trade, and examine macroeconomic policy responses. In so doing, they address important questions including: How did this crisis differ from those suffered previously? How and why did flaws in financial markets contribute to the crisis? How important were global imbalances and global overheating in explaining the global meltdown? Did different pre-crisis fundamentals generate different post-crisis performances? And, how severe were the economic shocks to countries such as Korea and other emerging economies?

Can be purchased at: Edward Elgar

Population Aging and the Generational Economy: A Global Perspective

Oct 2011 (EE)
by Andrew Mason, Ronald Lee

Over coming decades, changes in population age structure will have profound implications for the macroeconomy, influencing economic growth, generational equity, human capital, saving and investment, and the sustainability of public and private transfer systems. How the future unfolds will depend on key actors in the generational economy: governments, families, financial institutions, and others. This path-breaking book provides a comprehensive analysis of the macroeconomic effects of changes in population age structure across the globe.

Can be purchased at: Edward Elgar Publishing Amazon

Entrepreneurship Snapshots 2010: Measuring the Impact of the Financial Crisis on New Business Registration

2010
by Leora Klapper and Inessa Love

Can be purchased at: Barnes & Noble

Sustainability Science for Watershed Landscapes

May 2010 (ISEAS and SEARCA)
by James Roumasset, Kimberly Burnett, and Arsenio Balisacan

This volume convenes leading economists, biologists, hydrologists, and engineers to help synthesize a third wave in sustainability science that goes beyond the nature of interactions in order to facilitate policy analysis. Sustainability science integrates traditional interdisciplinary environmental studies with policy science. In this new volume, authors go beyond the application of scientific knowledge to specific problems and develop new methods for dealing complications of resource systems under pressure. In the case of watershed-related issues, sustainability science begins with questions regarding the targets and instruments of watershed management, including forest and watershed conservation, ground and surface water management, flood risk reduction, and food system management. "This book provides evidence and insight of key elements of what is required to achieve sustainability by framing important policy questions and illustrating the consequences of policy alternatives in systems with complex interactions," says Stephen Polasky of University of Minnesota.

Can be purchased at: ISEAS Publishing Amazon

Developing a Dream Destination: Tourism and Tourism Policy Planning in Hawaii

March 2008 (University of Hawai'i Press)
by James Mak

Developing a Dream Destination is an interpretive history of tourism and tourism policy development in Hawai'i from the 1960s to the twenty-first century. Part 1 looks at the many changes in tourism since statehood (1959) and tourism's imprint on Hawai'i. Part 2 reviews the development of public policy toward tourism, beginning with a story of the planning process that started around 1970 - a full decade before the first comprehensive State Tourism Plan was crafted and implemented. It also examines state government policies and actions taken relative to the taxation of tourism, tourism promotion, convention center development and financing, the environment, Honolulu County's efforts to improve Waikiki, and how the Neighbor Islands have coped with explosive tourism growth. Along the way, author James Mak offers interpretations of what has worked, what has not, and why. He concludes with a chapter on the lessons learned while developing a dream destination over the past half century.

Can be purchased at: UH Press and Amazon

Government and the American Economy: A New History

May 2007 (University of Chicago Press)
by Sumner La Croix and Price Fishback

The American economy has provided a level of well-being that has consistently ranked at or near the top of the international ladder. A key source of this success has been widespread participation in political and economic processes. The volume chronicles the significance of America's open-access society and the roles played by government in its unrivaled success story.

Can be purchased at: Abe Books Amazon

Challenges to the Global Trading System: Adjustment to Globalization in the Asia-Pacific Region

May 2007 (Routledge)
by Sumner La Croix and Peter A. Petri

In this volume La Croix and Petri collect essays debating the state of globalization. Participants of the 30th Pacific Trade and Development Conference discuss globalization's prospects in East Asia and the effects that that region's localized trade has had on world-wide globalization.

International trade within the East Asian region has strengthened, but globalization is flagging. Participants of the 30th Pacific Trade and Development Conference discuss globalization's prospects, asking whether globalization has terminally weakened or if a resurgence is possible. The essays collected in this volume also examine the global and local effects of globalization with new data, touching on the location of pollution-intensive industries, outsourcing, and international security.

Can be purchased at: Abe Books Amazon

Population Change, Labor Markets and Sustainable Growth: Towards a New Economic Paradigm

March 2007 (Elsevier)
by Andrew Mason and Mitoshi Yamaguchi

The most rapidly growing demographic groups in many countries are those in their 70s, 80s, and older. The contributions to this volume are concerned primarily with the economic implications of and the policy responses to these demographic changes, highlighting the economic and social adjustments being pursued by Japan, but treating also a variety of other industrialized nations facing the same demographic crisis. Intended primarily for professionals and graduate students, the volume is number 281 in the Elsevier series "Contributions to Economic Analysis."

Can be purchased at: Abe Books Amazon