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Tag: Economic Impacts

Impacts of Living Wages in the Airport Hospitality Enhancement Zone

December 8, 2010 / By Daniel Flaming and Patrick Burns / City of Los Angeles Administrative Officer

This study of the Airport Hospitality Enhancement Zone examines the economic impacts of minimum compensation requirements, outcomes from the non-tiered living wage requirement for both tipped and non-tipped hotel workers, and the costs and possible benefits of training for hotel workers. Hotels in the Airport Hospitality Zone are called upon by the City to pay workers a minimum of $10.30 an hour and $1.25 per hour in health benefits, or $11.55 an hour if health benefits are not provided. 

Ebbing Tides in the Golden State: Impacts of the 2008 Recession on California and Los Angeles County

June 8, 2009 / By Daniel Flaming, Patrick Burns and Michael Matsunaga / Economic Roundtable, the California Endowment

The most concrete characteristic of a recession is that demand disappears for some of the commodities produced by workers and unwanted unemployment is imposed on a large segment of the labor force. With growing job losses in the current recession it is important to know, whose boat falls when the economic tide recedes? 

Planning Economic Growth

August 1, 2007 / By Daniel Flaming / Economic Roundtable

There are at least three reasons why it has become important for Los Angeles to exert purposeful influence on its own economic trajectory: The population has grown steadily but the number of jobs in the formal economy, where employers comply with labor law, is still below the level of 1990. 

Public Outlays, Local Jobs

November 1, 2006 / By Patrick Burns / the Ad Hoc Committee on Gang Violence and Youth Development, the Housing Community and Economic Development Committee of the Los Angeles City Council

We estimate that $1.1 billion in economic impacts generated by city purchases occur outside of Los Angeles County. There are opportunities to implement import substitution strategies to increase Los Angeles’ share of beneficial economic impacts from city purchases. Import substitution strategies will be most beneficial if they help build growth momentum for industries that are beneficial to Los Angeles.

From the Pockets of Strangers: Economic Impacts of Tourism in Los Angeles and Five Competing Metropolitan Destinations

January 1, 2006 / By Daniel Flaming, Patrick Burns and Brent Haydamack / LA INC, The Convention and Visitors Bureau

  While the visitor industry is a key economic engine for LA, it’s Lodging industry shows signs of structural weakness. Compared to the size of its visitor economy, LA’s Lodging inventory is only 62 percent of the national average. Compared to other cities with which it competes for tourism spending, LA’s Lodging industry serves a relatively small number of visitors given the size our economy. 

Hopeful Workers, Marginal Jobs: LA’s Off-The-Books Labor Force

December 5, 2005 / By Daniel Flaming, Brent Haydamack and Pascale Joassart / the City of Los Angeles' LA Economy Project

There is extensive evidence of a growing informal labor force in Los Angeles City and County, along with stagnant employment in the formal labor market. Between 2000 and 2004, the working age population in the county grew by 4.9 percent, but the number of wage and salary jobs (i.e., 

Workers Without Rights

May 6, 2002 / By Pascale Joassart and Daniel Flaming / Economic Roundtable

The informal economy produces legal goods and services that are not effectively regulated. Such activities can give rise to abuses by employers who fail to respect basic labor, safety, immigration, and tax laws, leaving workers without rights. By definition the informal economy is hidden "under the table" and "off the books." However, by comparing different sources of employment data we can identify industries where a significant share of jobs appear to be unreported. Industry characteristics such as worker demographics can also be used as an additional indicator of informal employment.

On the Edge: A Progress Report on Welfare to Work in Los Angeles

January 1, 1999 / By Daniel Flaming, Mark Drayse and Peter Force / Economic Roundtable

The loss of a welfare safety net for most adults for most of their lives makes the quality of jobs available to the working poor and their success in finding and keeping jobs increasingly important. The economic and civic life of the Los Angeles region will be shaped by connections that are made, or fail to be made, between the growing ranks of working poor and opportunities for steady, sustaining, productive employment. 

South Bay Economic Adjustment Strategy

November 1, 1998 / By Daniel Flaming, Mark Drayse, Michael Beltramo-Beltramo and Associates, Tom Jirovsky-Kosmont and Associates Inc, Frank Taplin-Kosmont and Associates, David Rigby-UCLA Department of Geography and John Wilson-USC Department of Geography / the County of Los Angeles South Bay Communities and Community Development Commission

The South Bay Economic Adjustment Strategy has been prepared to help elected officials, public sector staff, business leaders, and citizens take coordinated, effective action to recover jobs lost because of defense cutbacks. The strategy has been prepared under a grant from the Office of Economic Adjustment in the Department of Defense that was administered by Los Angeles County’s Community Development Commission. 
Photograph "Long Beach McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Plant; 28.07.1995" by Aero Icarus, Zürich, Switzerland, obtained and used 1995. Uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on August 26, 2010, taken on July 28, 1995. Protected under the CC BY-SA 2.0 DEED license.

Economic Restructuring in Long Beach: Opportunities and Challenges in a Post-Aerospace Economy

September 1, 1997 / By Mark Drayse, Daniel Flaming and David L. Rigby,UCLA Lewis Center For Regional Policy Studies / Economic Roundtable

The City of Long Beach and other centers of aerospace production that reaped the rewards of the 1980s defense-spending boom must now confront the realities of restructuring. Since World War II, the Douglas Aircraft plant made Long Beach an important center of the US aerospace industry and dominated the local economy. In 1992, the Long Beach aerospace industry employed 36,100 workers, which was 22 percent of the city's total employment. Almost all of these workers were employed by McDonnell Douglas. Long Beach aerospace workers earned a total payroll of over $1.5 billion, which was 30 percent of the city's total payroll. These figures understate the total impact of aerospace on the Long Beach economy, through linkages with firms in other industries that provide inputs to the aerospace industry, and purchases of goods and services by aerospace workers.

Post Cold War Frontiers: Defense Downsizing and Conversion in Los Angeles

January 1, 1996 / By Michael Oden-Rutgers University Project on Regional and Industrial Economics, Ann Markusen-Rutgers University Project on Regional and Industrial Economics, Daniel Flaming and Mark Drayse / Economic Roundtable

This study examines how firms, workers, and regional economic development institution are dealing with the severe effects of defense downsizing in the Los Angeles region. Between 1988 and 1994 the Los Angeles region lost 127,000 jobs in defense-related industries, including aircraft, missiles, instruments, and electronics. The long economic slump set off by defense cuts has incited a major debate between the advocates of regional institution building and proactive economic development and those arguing for the laissez-faire approach of reducing taxes, wages, and environmental costs. 
Photograph by Kevin Haggerty, "Queen Mary" uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on November 21, 2005, taken on November 20, 2005. Protected under the CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED license.

Long Beach Business: 1994 Long Beach Business Survey

April 27, 1995 / By Daniel Flaming / Economic Roundtable

SYNOPSIS Purpose The 1994 Business Survey was initiated by the City of Long Beach to guide and strengthen its business outreach and retention efforts. Technical guidance, data analysis, and report preparation was carried out by the Economic Roundtable. The purpose was to: Identify the concerns, needs and opportunities of businesses in order to strengthen City programs for supporting Long Beach’s economic base. 
Photograph by Niall Kennedy, "Fuel Cell parking only: Fuel Cell parking sign at SRI in Palo Alto" Uploaded to Flickr Creative Commons on February 10, 2008. Protected under CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED license.

Fuel Cells for Transportation: Technical Feasibility and Economic Impacts

May 8, 1994 / By Daniel Flaming, Mark Drayse, John M. Lee, Fuel Cell Engineering, Marshall Miller, Uc Davis Institute Of Transportation Studies And Union Of Concerned Scientists, David L. Rigby,UCLA Lewis Center For Regional Policy Studies and David Swan, Uc Davis Institute Of Transportation Studies / the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Fuel cells are a feasible power system technology for future transit vehicles. The advantages of fuel cells include high efficiency and extremely low vehicle emissions. Progress in fuel cell technology is moving rapidly with limited commercialization expected in this decade. Transit vehicles are a logical first application of fuel cells in transportation. Fundamental to the application of fuel cells to transit is the choice of boarded fuel. Hydrogen and methanol are the favored fuels to store on the vehicle with methanol being converted into a hydrogen rich gas on-board the vehicle. Hydrogen simplifies the fuel cell power plant at the expense of the refueling facility. Methanol simplifies the refueling facility at the expense of the vehicle fuel cell system. Depending on the vehicle mission, range and payload advantages for each fuel can be shown. The total direct and indirect employment created per $1 Billion of demand for fuel cells is 15,157 jobs. Approximately 77% of this employment is found in the manufacturing sector.

Los Angeles County Economic Adjustment Strategy for Defense Reductions

April 1, 1992 / By Daniel Flaming, Michael Beltramo-Beltramo and Associates, Odessa Dubinsky, Elizabeth Reid, Katherine Bulow-Bulow And Associates, David Hensley-UCLA Business Forcasting Project and Allen J. Scott-UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies / Los Angeles County Community Development Commission, United States Department of Commerce: Economic Development Administration

Background An interdisciplinary research team analyzed information about the labor market, economy, industries, and defense linkages of Los Angeles County. The report recommends an economic adjustment strategy to reduce severe job losses projected as a result of cutbacks in defense funding for Los Angeles County industries. 

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