News and Announcements

Ecosystem services is the term often used to describe goods and services we get from ecosystems—like salmon habitat or clean air. These things are valuable, but they aren’t usually bought or sold in the marketplace. Ecosystem service valuation assigns a dollar value to them. David Batker, executive director of Earth Economics, talks about the tools being used to identify and value ecosystem services. Such valuation can help policymakers as they make decisions about resource management and sustainable economic development.

A new report by Mouhcine Guettabi, Rosyland Frazier, and Gunnar Knapp of ISER analyzes the results of a survey of Alaska employers about what health-care benefits they offer employees. The Alaska Department of Labor conducted the survey, which covered businesses, local governments, and school districts statewide. The Alaska Health Care Commission contracted with the department and ISER for the work. The report finds, among other things, that two-thirds of Alaska businesses don't provide health-insurance, and the reason they cite most often is no surprise: it's too expensive. And although about a third of employees at Alaska firms work part-time or seasonally, very few of them carry employer-based insurance. Of those employees carrying insurance through their employers, 95% are full-time workers and only 5% are part-time or seasonal. Download the report, Alaska Employer Health-Care Benefits: A Survey of Alaska Employers (pdf, 1.9MB), by Mouhcine Guettabi, Rosyland Frazier, and Gunnar Knapp. A summary, Snapshot of Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance in Alaska (pdf, 669.9KB), by the same authors, is also available. If you have questions, get in touch with Mouhcine Guettabi at mguettabi@alaska.edu or 907-786-5496.

Alaska Common Ground and ISER recently sponsored a non-partisan public forum, with analysts from government, the University of Alaska, and private industry discussing choices the state government will likely face as pressure on the state budget increases. Oil from Alaska’s North Slope has supported the state’s government and economy for decades. But oil production has been dropping—at the same time population and state spending have been growing and the government’s debt obligations, pension liabilities, and other costs have been increasing. Now you can watch panel discussions from the October 4 forum on Alaska Common Ground's website.

Alaskans will soon vote on whether to keep the state's new oil production tax, known as SB 21, that went into effect this year, or to go back to the previous tax, called Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share (ACES). A new analysis by Matthew Berman, professor of economics at ISER, looks broadly at how the new tax compares with the tax it replaced, examining not only how future state revenues might differ under the two systems, but also other differences—how the two compare with older production tax regimes and how government-industry relationships vary under the two systems. He finds that SB 21 has a number of drawbacks, compared with earlier systems, including its administrative complexity and its low effective tax rate for new oil—which means that the state's percentage share of the value of the oil is likely to decline over time. He identifies the one major problem with ACES as its high effective tax rates, which could hamper new investment. Overall, Dr. Berman concludes that the tax system in place before ACES—the Petroleum Profits Tax, replaced by ACES in 2007—is arguably a better fit for Alaska, because it had neither the high tax rates of ACES nor the administrative complexity of SB 21. Download the full analysis, Comparing Alaska's Oil Production Taxes: Incentives and Assumptions (PDF, 684KB). If you have questions, get in touch with Gunnar Knapp, ISER's director, at gpknapp@uaa.alaska.edu or 907-786-7717.

In the primary election scheduled for August 19, Alaskans will vote on whether to keep or repeal the new state oil-production tax system, commonly known as Senate Bill (SB) 21. Alaska Common Ground and several co-sponsors (including ISER) are holding a forum on the oil-tax referendum on July 23, in the Wilda Marston Theatre of Anchorage's Loussac Library, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The forum is free and open to the public. Speaking in favor of repealing the new tax will be Bill Wielechowski, a state senator from Anchorage, and Gregg Erickson, a long-time Alaska economist. Supporting the new system will be Brad Keithley, an oil and gas policy consultant, and Roger Marks, a veteran petroleum economist. ISER's director, Gunnar Knapp, will moderate the discussion. Alaska Common Ground is a non-profit organization that brings Alaskans together to talk about Alaska public policy issues. For more information, go to www.akcommonground.org or call 907-952-3353.

Updated on June 27, 2014 On Friday, June 27, Scott Goldsmith, professor emeritus of economics at ISER, will host a technical workshop, open to the public, to discuss the model used in his recent analysis (pdf, 2.6MB) of future revenues under the state’s old method of taxing oil production, called ACES, and the new method that went into effect in January, known as SB21 or MAPA. When: Friday, June 27, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Where: UAA Consortium Library, Room 307. Parking is free on UAA campus this week. Available for download: Analysis (pdf, 2.6MB) Analysis model (.xlsx, 234KB) Presentation - May 1, 2014 (pdf, 3.95MB) to the Resource Development Council Presentation - June 25, 2014 (pdf, 3.45MB) to Commonwealth North If you are planning on attending the workshop, please RSVP by calling (907) 786-7710 so we know how many to expect.

Treating medical problems related to obesity among the current group of children and teenagers in Alaska will cost about $624 million (in today's dollars) over the next 20 years, according to a new analysis by Mouhcine Guettabi, assistant professor of economics at ISER. That includes costs for the 15% who are obese now, and will likely remain so as adults, as well as another 20% who aren't obese now but will become obese as adults.  These are the first estimates of the medical costs associated with obesity among those ages 2 through 19 in Alaska today. The study, Current and Future Medical Costs of Obesity in Alaska (pdf, 372.5KB), was done for the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. If you have questions, get in touch with Mouhcine Guettabi at mguettabi@alaska.edu.

Heather Hudson, professor of public policy at ISER, is a co-author of an article about advocating for indigenous regulatory authority in Canada's far north, recently published in the Journal of Information Policy. Download the article (pdf, 194.8KB).

Suicide rates among Alaska Natives rose rapidly in the 1960s and have remained high since then, with the highest rate among young Alaska Native men living in Alaska's small rural communities: 20 times the rate among Americans as a whole. But suicide rates among young Alaska Native men are considerably higher or lower in some small rural places than in others.  In a recent analysis, Matthew Berman, professor of economics at ISER, looked at how community living conditions—including local alcohol control—affect suicide rates among young Alaska Native men. Analyzing data from the period 1980 through 2007, he found that specific community characteristics were associated with either higher or lower risk of suicide. Download the analysis, Suicide Among Young Alaska Native Men: Community Factors and Alcohol Control (PDF, 561.5KB). It was published in the American Journal of Public Health. If you have questions, get in touch with Matthew Berman at matthew.berman@uaa.alaska.edu.

Future population growth could be very expensive for residents of the Mat-Su Borough, if the cost of schools and other services increases faster than the revenues needed to pay for them. A big issue looming for the borough—and other local governments—is that state aid, which currently pays most of the bill for Alaska schools, is likely to decline as declining oil production reduces state revenues. The problem is particularly critical for the Mat-Su Borough, which is the fastest growing area in Alaska. A new analysis by Steve Colt, a professor of economics at ISER, assesses how six different land-use and population alternatives could affect the borough's finances through 2050. It focuses on the potential future costs of borough schools, because schools are by far the borough's biggest expense. The analysis was funded by The Nature Conservancy, the Bullitt Foundation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Download the analysis, Fiscal Impacts of Alternative Land-Use Scenarios for the Mat-Su Borough (PDF, 1.5MB). If you have questions, get in touch with Steve Colt at sgcolt@uaa.alaska.edu.