Join us for a webinar on March 25 from 12-1 pm, when Dr. Brett Watson will present findings from research studies that statistically quantify how much locals in Alaska communities benefit economically from commercial fishing.
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Anyone who has seen a food web of a marine ecosystem has seen a model in which little fish eat plankton, medium-sized fish eat little fish, and the biggest fish eat everything else. A food web is a familiar way to conceptualize the ecological connectivity of marine species. In a paper titled “Defining the Economic Scope for Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management”, and published this year in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, we pose and examine the question: could a parallel model be used to conceptualize economic connectivity and explore the management implications of policy choices?
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A new study of the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) program shows that an additional $1,000 PFD decreases the probability of an Alaskan child being obese by as much as 4.5 percentage points, translating to about a 22% reduction in obesity.
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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.
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Reproduced with permission from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
ISER’s Matt Reimer is co-author of a new paper on fisheries management released by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
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Matt Reimer is the lead author of the Outstanding Article Award in Marine Resource Economics for 2017.
Check out the article "Fisheries Production: Management Institutions, Spatial Choice, and the Quest for Policy Invariance."
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Alaska has hundreds of commercial fisheries, and fishery managers issue unique permits for each fishery. But in a new blog post, Matt Reimer, an ISER economist, and his co-authors report that many of those who fish in Alaska waters have multiple permits, allowing them to take catches in different fisheries. That means if managers change a policy for one fishery—for instance, reducing the catch limit—permit holders could react by changing where they fish, going after different species, or using different gear.
So how can managers assess whether a policy change in one commercial fishery might have such unintended consequences in others? Matt Reimer and his co-authors argue that having statistical data on cross-fishery networks among permit holders—and analyzing those data—could help managers better understand the potential spillover effects of changing policies for a given fishery. The authors also created an interactive map, showing existing cross-fishery networks. Check out the blog.
If you have questions, get in touch with Matt Reimer at: mreimer2@alaska.edu or 907-786-5430.
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In recent times ISER has broadened its research capacity in economics and public policy by adding three new faculty members.
Diwakar Vadapalli is an assistant professor of public policy at ISER. His PhD in social welfare is from Case Western University. Before coming to ISER he worked as a community planner and local government specialist in rural Alaska.
Mouhcine Guettabi is an assistant professor of economics at ISER, with a PhD in economics from Oklahoma State University. His fields of specialization are regional and urban economics, applied microeconomics, and health economics.
Matt Reimer holds a PhD in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Davis. He is an assistant professor of economics at ISER, with interests in environmental and resource economics, focusing on fisheries policy.
Read more about the work these new faculty members are doing.