Two emeriti ISER directors, Scott Goldsmith and Gunnar Knapp, debated how best to manage the Permanent Fund at a Commonwealth North lunch at the Petroleum Club on November 8, 2019. The specific resolution for the debate was: “Resolved: The Alaska Constitution should be amended to specify that the Permanent Fund […]
Not surprisingly, Alaskans remain keenly interested in both the short-term and long-term prospects for the Alaska economy. ISER continues to give requested presentations on the Alaska economy and the state budget to civic groups. On October 18, Mouhcine Guettabi and Ralph Townsend participated in a panel entitled “Alaska’s Economy: Facts, […]
Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) Associate Professor of Economics, Dr. Mouhcine Guettabi, recently released his report, A simple decomposition of Alaska’s labor force participation rate, which details his research surrounding the steady decline in the percentage of people working or seeking employment over the past two decades […]
Institute of Social and Economic Research Associate Professor of Economics, Dr. Mouhcine Guettabi, is to participate on an upcoming panel to follow up on the forum earlier this year, The Costs of Alaska’s Economic Roller Coaster, which examined and discussed the costs of a start-and-stop economy and […]
Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) Assistant Professor of Economics, Dr. Kevin Berry, recently published a report for Bike Anchorage and the Municipality of Anchorage estimating and evaluating the impact of organized promotional events on the number of individuals cycling to work in Anchorage, Alaska, specifically “Bike to Work […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Scott Goldsmith, Professor Emeritus of Economics at ISER, spoke with Abbey Collins of Alaska Public Radio Network last week about increased construction spending in Alaska, particularly increases in petroleum and national defense spending. These increases, along with spending as a result of the 7.1 magnitude earthquake in November, are contributing to what Goldsmith estimates to be about a 10% increase in construction spending over 2018. Goldsmith's estimates of spending by sector are available in the 16th annual construction forecast, prepared for the Associated General Contractors of Alaska.
For the last 37 years, Alaska residents have received a Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD), but it is only recently that researchers have begun to analyze the effect of the PFD on the socio-economic well-being of Alaskans. In a new paper, Mouhcine Guettabi, associate professor of economics and ISER faculty, summarizes […]
