Political Economy of Protecting Unique Recreational Resources: Hanauma Bay, Hawaii

James Moncur and James Mak ()
Additional contact information
James Mak: Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa

No 199708, Working Papers from University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics

Abstract: The impact of tourism growth on the environment has become an increasingly important public issue in travel destinations. We review Honolulu's recent experience in designing management strategies to protect one of its most popular, unique, and endangered natural recreational resources, Hanauma Bay Nature Park. We explain why Honolulu City Council members first adopted non-price rationing techniques to reduce visits at the park and later added an admission fee only to replace it with a lower and less efficiency-enhancing fee structure. Lawmakers desire (a) a quality environment, (b) to collect economic rents (i.e., achieve economic efficiency) for the benefit of the general public, and yet must (c) achieve a political equilibrium. As Honolulu's experience demonstrates, goals (a) and (b) often conflict with (c), yielding typically a second-best outcome. Efficiency can be attained only if it is also consistent with attaining political equilibrium.

Pages: 34 pages
Date: 1997
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.economics.hawaii.edu/research/workingpapers/88-98/WP_97-8.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: Political Economy of Protecting Unique Recreational Resources: Hanauma Bay, Hawai'i (1996)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hai:wpaper:199708

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.economics ... esearch/working.html

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Web Technician ().