Economy / Fiscal Policy

New research from ISER's Tobias Schwoerer, senior research professional, UAA’s Civil Engineering Department and the Alaska State Department of Transportation show that studded tire use in Alaska costs $13.7 million a year and reduces the asphalt surface life between 7 and 9 years, depending on traffic, location, and type of asphalt mix. Phasing out the use of studded tires topped the researchers’ list of options to reduce the cost of road damage.

Very different policies led to a reduction in state government in Kansas than what is driving a reduction in state government in Alaska, according to ISER Director Ralph Townsend in an interview for Alaska Public Media. But that doesn’t mean Alaska will be spared the economic impacts. 

ISER's Mouhcine Guettabi gave a presentation on the economic impacts of Governor Dunleavy's veto of $409M from the state budget at the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce's "Make it Monday," telling the audience that employment losses from cuts will exceed any gains that have been realized during Alaska's fragile economic recovery of the last few months. 

ISER's Mouhcine Guettabi provides context on the Governor Dunleavy's vetoes and their potential impact on the Alaska economy in a series of tweets, showing that just the University of Alaska direct cuts, without accounting for all other line item vetoes (Medicaid, K-12, seniors, debt reimbursement, etc) essentially pushes the Alaska economy back into a recession.

Ralph Townsend, ISER director, gave presentations on Alaska’s economy and the state budget (PPTX, 701KB) to the Board of Directors of the Alaska Federation of Natives, CIRI’s Tikahtnu Forum and the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce in early May.

There are positive signs that the recession is coming to an end, with a slight growth in jobs during January and February 2019, but the recovery is fragile and will be sensitive to changes in oil prices and budget cuts, Mouhcine Guettabi, associate professor of Economics and ISER faculty told attendees at a series of Alaska Economic Summits sponsored by Northrim Bank in April.

Overall, employment increased by 400 jobs between February 2018 and February 2019. This is in comparison to losses of more than 12,500 jobs since 2016.

An increase of $1,000 in the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) affects women in the labor market differently than men, with women working fewer hours and men having increased employment opportunities in the three months after the PFD is distributed. The differing responses, however, nearly balance each other out with a relatively small decline in the number of hours worked on an annual basis, according to a new paper by ISER’s Andrew Bibler, Mouhcine Guettabi, and Matthew Reimer. 

Mouhcine Guettabi provided an economic overview and answered questions concerning the impact of the governor's proposed budget to members of the Alaska State Senate and House Finance Committees on Thursday, March 7. 

Mouhcine's presentation, Budget options: What are the short term effects?, is available for download.