Matthew Berman

The final report, Short-Run Economic Impacts of Alaska Fiscal Options, by Gunnar Knapp, Matthew Berman, and Mouhcine Guettabi, is now available for downloading. It replaces all earlier versions. Also available is a presentation by Gunnar Knapp, for the Alaska Senate Finance Committee on March 30, 2016, discussing the Alaska economy as well as the report findings.

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.

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.

ISER faculty will teach a variety of courses in spring 2012, including classes on energy and environmental economics, communications policy, public land management, research methods, and culture and globalization.