Shawn Arita

The Influence of Ethnic Diversity on Social Network Structure in a Common-Pool Resource System: Implications for Collaborative Management

Social networks have recently been identified as key features in facilitating or constraining collaborative arrangements that can enhance resource governance and adaptability in complex social-ecological systems. Nonetheless, the effect of ethnicity on social network structure in an ethnically diverse common-pool resource system is virtually unknown. We characterize the entire social network of Hawaii’s longline fishery, an ethnically diverse competitive pelagic fishery, and investigate network homophily, network structure, and cross-scale linkages. Results show that ethnicity significantly influences social network structure and is responsible for a homophily effect, which can create challenges for stakeholder collaboration across groups. Our analysis also suggests that ethnicity influences the formation of diverse network structures, and can affect the level of linkages to outside industry leaders, government or management officials, and members of the scientific community. This study provides the first empirical examination of the impact of ethnic diversity on resource user’s social networks in the common-pool resource literature, having important implications for collaborative resource management.

What Determines Social Capital in a Social–Ecological System? Insights from a Network Perspective

Social capital is an important resource that can be mobilized for purposive action or competitive gain. The distribution of social capital in social–ecological systems can determine who is more productive at extracting ecological resources and who emerges as influential in guiding their management, thereby empowering some while disempowering others. Despite its importance, the factors that contribute to variation in social capital among individuals have not been widely studied. We adopt a network perspective to examine what determines social capital among individuals in social–ecological systems. We begin by identifying network measures of social capital relevant for individuals in this context, and review existing evidence concerning their determinants. Using a complete social network dataset from Hawaii’s longline fishery, we employ social network analysis and other statistical methods to empirically estimate these measures and determine the extent to which individual stakeholder attributes explain variation within them. We find that ethnicity is the strongest predictor of social capital. Measures of human capital (i.e., education, experience), years living in the community, and information-sharing attitudes are also important. Surprisingly, we find that when controlling for other factors, industry leaders and formal fishery representatives are generally not well connected. Our results offer new quantitative insights on the relationship between stakeholder diversity, social networks, and social capital in a coupled social–ecological system, which can aid in identifying barriers and opportunities for action to overcome resource management problems. Our results also have implications for achieving resource governance that is not only ecologically and economically sustainable, but also equitable.

Impact of Approved Destination Status on Chinese travel abroad: an econometric analysis

Since the early 1990s, Chinas government has negotiated Approved Destination Status (ADS) with 120 countries. The agreements allow government-approved travel agencies to market group tours and obtain visas in bulk to ADS destinations. The authors apply a fixed-effects estimation model to analyse how ADS has affected outbound tourist travel from China, using visitor arrivals data from 61 foreign destinations from 1995 to 2005. Various model specifications indicate that ADS has resulted in significant increases in arrivals from China, averaging 52% over three years. The authors also find evidence of travel diversion as more countries have received ADS.

ASSESSING HAWAII'S AQUACULTURE FARM AND INDUSTRY PERFORMANCE

This investigation uses farm-level data from the U.S. Census of Agriculture to evaluate the economic performance of the aquaculture industry in Hawaii. We first examine the entire aquaculture industry by assessing its profitability, efficiency, and input cost structure over time and across economic farm sizes; we then proceed to analyze the farms at the individual subsector levels of crustacean, Chinese catfish, other foodfish, and ornamental farms. The results reveal a wide variation in performance across farms, even within the same subsectors. In 2007, 57.6% of the aquafarms generated a profit; however 39.4% of the farms were found unable to cover their variable cash expenses. The presence of significant economies of scales were detected in performance with full-time operations being found more profitable and efficient than part-time operations. Finally, Hawaiis labor cost share for aquaculture enterprises is about 3.5 times greater than that found on the continental United States.