News and Announcements

News at ISER

Welcome to the ISER News and Announcements page, your hub for timely updates, industry insights, and the latest organizational highlights. Here, you can stay informed about upcoming events, important deadlines, and exciting achievements, all aimed at keeping the ISER community connected and engaged.

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The Most Important Things to Understand About Alaska’s Fiscal Situation

The fall in oil prices has led to growing concern among Alaskans about the state's fiscal situation. To help Alaskans better understand this critical issue, Gunnar Knapp, ISER's director and a professor of economics, has been making a presentation to organizations around Alaska.

Download the full presentation (pdf, 1.7MB) or a summary (pdf, 467.7KB), The Most Important Things to Understand About Alaska's Fiscal Situation, by Gunnar Knapp. The presentation will be updated over time. If you have questions, get in touch with Gunnar Knapp at 907-786-7717 or Gunnar.Knapp@uaa.alaska.edu.

ISER publications are solely the work of individual authors and should be attributed to them, not to ISER, the University of Alaska Anchorage, or the research sponsors.

  • 30 Jan 2015

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Alaska's 2015 Construction Spending Forecast

Construction spending in Alaska will be an estimated $8.5 billion in 2015, down about 3% from spending in 2014. That's according to the 2015 construction spending forecast, by Scott Goldsmith and Pamela Cravez of ISER. That forecast is done annually for the Construction Industry Progress Fund and the Associated General Contractors of Alaska, with funding from Northrim Bank. The authors find:

• Overall construction spending will remain strong in 2015, despite the recent steep drop in oil prices. That's partly because there is still a backlog of projects funded under large state capital budgets in earlier years.

• Forecasting how much oil companies will spend for capital projects in Alaska is especially difficult this year. The companies had earlier announced plans to increase spending 18%. But the low oil price will likely force some cutbacks, so spending is forecast to stay about the same as last year.

• Private spending for commercial and residential construction is likely to be down in 2015, in the face of slowing job and population growth and uncertainty about oil prices.

Download Alaska's 2015 Construction Spending Forecast (pdf, 1.8MB), by Scott Goldsmith and Pamela Cravez. If you have questions, get in touch with Scott Goldsmith at osgoldsmith@uaa.alaska.edu.

A presentation given by Mouhcine Guettabi and John MacKinnon in Anchorage on January 29, 2015 and Fairbanks on January 30, 2015 is also available for download (PDF, 1.8MB).

ISER publications are solely the work of individual authors and should be attributed to them, not to ISER, the University of Alaska Anchorage, or the research sponsors.

  • 30 Jan 2015

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Maximum Sustainable Yield: FY 2016 Update

Alaska's state government could spend $4.5 billion for general expenses this year and every year long into the future, without depleting the state's petroleum assets. That's the most recent estimate of sustainable General Fund spending by Scott Goldsmith, professor emeritus of economics at ISER. He began estimating that sustainable spending level in 2012, adjusting it annually with changes in the size of state petroleum assets. He currently estimates those assets (consisting of savings accounts and expected revenues from future petroleum production) at $135 billion.
  • 14 Jan 2015

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Fiscal Planning Model Available for Downloading

To help people better understand the fiscal challenges Alaska's state government faces, Scott Goldsmith, professor emeritus of economics at ISER, has created an interactive planning model Alaskans and others can download and use to investigate for themselves the implications of different assumptions about state revenues and fiscal policies. Before opening the spreadsheet, users must first "enable macros."

Download the model (Macro-enabled Excel File (.xlsm), 4.54MB)

  • 13 Jan 2015

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January 7 talk at ISER. Challenges and Choices: Understanding Alaska's Fiscal Future

Falling oil prices over the past several months have added to the fiscal challenge Alaska’s state government already faced: North Slope oil production, which has largely paid for government operations since the 1970s, is less than a third of what it once was. Gunnar Knapp, ISER’s director, and Cliff Groh, the chair of Alaska Common Ground, are planning a series of presentations to help Alaskans understand the state’s fiscal situation. Their presentations at ISER are the first in that series, and they encourage the audience to ask questions and offer suggestions for improvement. Gunnar Knapp describes the fiscal situation, providing an overview of the state’s revenues, expenditures, and savings. Cliff Groh discusses the challenges that situation poses and outline the options for dealing with them. They do not advocate for any specific option or course of action, but rather they hope to help set the stage for an informed discussion among Alaskans.
  • 30 Dec 2014

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Research Matters No. 86. UAA Graduates: How Many Stay and Work in Alaska?

More and more people have been graduating from the University of Alaska Anchorage in the past decade. Do they stay in Alaska? What kinds of jobs do they have? How much do they earn?  A new analysis by ISER researchers Alexandra Hill, Gunnar Knapp, and Blake Steenhoven looks at those questions. They found that most graduates stay in Alaska at least five years after they graduate, they work throughout the economy, and by five years after they graduate their average earnings double. Around one-quarter of graduates do leave within a few years, but it looks as if they are no more likely than other Alaskans to leave the state. ISER researchers did this work in cooperation with UAA's Office of Institutional Research and the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Download the report, UAA Graduates: How Many Stay and Work in Alaska? by Alexandra Hill, Gunnar Knapp, and Blake Steenhoven. If you have questions, get in touch with Gunnar Knapp at 907-786-7717 (gunnar.knapp@uaa.alaska.edu) or Alexandra Hill at 907-786-5436 (lexi.hill@gmail.com).
  • 11 Dec 2014

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December 9 Talk at ISER. Adverse Childhood Experiences: What Do Adult Alaskans Report?

Over the past 20 years, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) studies have linked a variety of health and social problems among adult Americans to neglect or abuse they experienced as children. Patrick Sidmore is a planner with the Alaska Mental Health Board, and he has been a leader in analyzing ACE data for Alaska. At ISER he talks about the results of a 2013 survey documenting adverse childhood experiences among adult Alaskans, and the health, social, and economic consequences that can be traced to those experiences. Mr. Sidmore holds degrees in economics and management, as well as social work.
  • 04 Dec 2014

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Research Matters No. 85: Trends in Age, Gender, and Ethnicity Among Children in Foster Care in Alaska

Close to 1% of those 21 or younger in Alaska were in foster care in recent years—about twice the average of 0.5% among all those the same age nationwide. That's one of the findings of a new report by ISER researchers Diwakar Vadapalli, Virgene Hanna, and Jessica Passini, examining trends in the age, gender, and ethnicity of children and teenagers in Alaska's foster care system from 2006 through 2013. They also found that younger children make up an increasing share of those in Alaska's foster care system; that girls are somewhat more likely than boys to be in foster care; and that Alaska Native children account for about 60% of all those in foster care. Download the report, Trends in Age, Gender, and Ethnicity Among Children in Foster Care in Alaska, by Diwakar Vadapalli, Virgene Hanna, and Jessica Passini. If you have questions, get in touch with Diwakar Vadapalli at 907-786-5422 or diwakarvk@uaa.alaska.edu.
  • 01 Dec 2014

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ISER Alaska Rural Broadband Workshop

Dr. Heather E. Hudson, professor of communications policy at ISER, will chair a workshop providing current information on broadband plans and policy issues for rural Alaska, with panels on technology projects and opportunities in microwave, optical fiber, wireless, and satellite; and policy issues such as state initiatives, federal programs, and U.S. Arctic Council proposals. When: Monday, December 15, 2014 @ 1:00 pm to 4:45 pm Where: Diplomacy Building 301, 4500 Diplomacy Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508 Registration: The registration fee is $75. Please register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/alaska-rural-broadband-workshop-tickets-14434551131. If you are outside Anchorage and wish to participate by teleconference, please contact Prof. Heather Hudson at hehudson@uaa.alaska.edu.
  • 19 Nov 2014