CV
Non-academic CV
Two pages in plain language, for boards, government, and policy work.
Steven Bond-Smith
Economist, Associate Director, and Associate Professor
University of Hawaiʻi Economic Research Organization (UHERO), University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Honolulu, Hawaiʻi · bondsmit@hawaii.edu · linkedin.com/in/sbondsmith
I am an economist at the University of Hawaiʻi. I lead UHERO's research on economic development, and I am one of the economists behind the quarterly UHERO forecast that Hawaiʻi's public and private sectors use to plan.
My work covers economic development and diversification, productivity, the cost of living and incomes, housing, tourism, labor markets and innovation. Recent projects have measured how Hawaiʻi's economy performs once incomes are adjusted for local prices, identified which industries the state is realistically positioned to grow, and examined how remote work is changing cities and the case for transport investment.
Underneath all of it is one idea: economies differ from place to place, and policy works better when it accounts for local characteristics and nuances. That is what drew me to the field of regional economics in Aotearoa New Zealand and continued to motivate my work in Western Australia and now Hawaiʻi.
Current Positions
Where I Advise
Recent Work That Shaped Decisions
Is Hawaiʻi being left behind? (2026, with the Hawaiʻi Business Roundtable). Showed that once economic activity is adjusted for local prices, Hawaiʻi's economy ranks near the bottom of US states. Covered by the Associated Press, Honolulu Civil Beat, Hawaiʻi Public Radio and more than thirty other outlets. Increased productivity as a state priority and led to a funded project for the Governor's office.
Work from home and economic geography (2025–). A run of papers treating how often someone commutes as the decision that matters, and tracing what follows for cities: growth in the suburbs of large ones alongside a shadow cast over smaller ones. The lead paper is in the Journal of Regional Science, with evidence from Sweden and further work under way. It led to a commissioned project for the UK Department for Transport, partnering with The Productivity Institute.
Opportunities to diversify the economy of Hawaiʻi (2024). Identified, county by county, which industries Hawaiʻi is actually positioned to grow, rather than which ones sound appealing. Ocean-based industries came out near the top. Subsequently, the State created an Office of Marine Affairs to coordinate its blue economy strategy and HTDC pivoted towards ocean industries.
A spatial perspective on Hawaiʻi's economy (2021–2024). A run of work arguing that strategy here has to start from Hawaiʻi's location and scale, from the Location, location, location brief to a peer-reviewed article in Economic Development Quarterly. It influenced the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy for Oʻahu and for the State.
The cost of the higher education reforms (2020). Modelled what the Job-ready Graduates package would do to Australian university funding and found it would take out around A$900 million. Reported nationally, argued in The Australian, and the basis of the Centre's submission to the Senate committee examining the bill. The bill passed, but the analysis proved right: the Universities Accord found the package had failed and recommended replacing it, and the funding loss has since been put at A$813 million in 2024, close to what we projected.
Future-proofing the WA economy (2019, project leader). A roadmap to industrial diversification for Western Australia that identified 163,000 potential new jobs. The most widely covered piece of research I have led. It was written as an evidence base for Diversify WA, the State's diversification framework published around the same time, which is still in place and was updated in 2024.
Track Record
- Principal Investigator or co-investigator on research funding from the Hawaiʻi State Government, the UK Department for Transport, the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Health and Human Services, and agencies in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Current lead award: US$500,000 from the State of Hawaiʻi for a new approach to economic development and growth.
- Regularly briefs elected officials and executives, including county councils, the Chamber of Commerce Hawaiʻi, the Hawaiʻi Business Roundtable, the State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, and the UK Department for Transport.
- Contributed to the Holomua Collective's healthy economy working group, whose work informed the 2023 legislation that created the Hawaiʻi State Planning Act Phase 2 Task Force. Appointed to the task force in 2025.
- Widely quoted in the press, including The New York Times, the Associated Press, Slate, SFGate, the Honolulu Star Advertiser, Honolulu Civil Beat, Hawaiʻi Public Radio and Hawaii News Now.
- Published in leading international journals including the Journal of Economic Geography, Journal of Regional Science, Urban Studies and Cities.