Archived Research Matters - 2006
ISER Research Matters No. 19. Effects of Rising Utility Costs on Alaska Households
October 26, 2006
Households in remote Alaska communities face utility costs 50% higher now than in 2000. In Anchorage those costs are up 35% and in other large or road-system communities about 39%. These are among the findings of a new ISER study by Ben Saylor and Sharman Haley of how rising energy prices have increased utility costs for Alaska households since 2000. Utility costs are defined as costs of heat, electricity, and water and sewer systems.
4-page summary, Effects of Rising Utility Costs on Alaska Households
ISER Research Matters No. 18. Taxing the Gas Reserves: A Risky Policy
October 23, 2006
On November 7, Alaska voters will decide whether to start taxing the natural gas reserves in the two largest North Slope gas fields. The idea behind the proposal is to jump-start construction of a gas pipeline. A new analysis by ISER economist Scott Goldsmith finds that the proposal carries a big risk of increasing costs for both oil and gas production without speeding up development.
Click here to see a two-page summary, Taxing the Gas Reserves: A Risky Policy or the full paper, The Gas Reserves Tax Ballot Initiative.
ISER Research Matters No. 17. $1.5 Billion and Growing: Economic Contribution of Older Alaskans
September 14, 2006
Nearly $1.5 billion a year flows into Alaska from a source that doesn't depend on oil or fish or gold, isn't influenced by world markets, and isn't seasonal.
That cash flow roughly equals what fishermen were paid in 2005 for their Alaska seafood harvests, or the value of zinc, gold, and other metals mined in Alaska in 2004. It's close to what tourists spend in the state every summer.
What's the source? Retired Alaskans. Read a new analysis by Scott Goldsmith and Jane Angvik
ISER Research Matters No. 15. Understanding Alaska: People, Economy, and Resources June 13, 2006
ISER's newest publication may not tell you everything you always wanted to know about Alaska—but it will tell you a lot about the state's people, economy, and resources. It's an 18-page summary of research under a special ISER program called Understanding Alaska. That's a series of studies intended to help Alaskans understand how the economy works and how it might grow in the future. The work is funded by the University of Alaska Foundation. Among other things, the summary includes:
- An overview of how and why Alaska's economy has changed since statehood
- A description of who Alaskans are, where they live, and how they are changing
- Projections of likely rates of future population and job growth
- A look at the implications of farmed fish and globalization for Alaska's wild seafood
Understanding Alaska: People, Economy, and Resources.
ISER Research Matters No. 14. Economic Impacts of BSAI Crab Rationalization on Kodiak
June 6, 2006
A new report by ISER fisheries economist Gunnar Knapp, prepared for the City of Kodiak, analyzes how the first year of the federal government's new management system for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Island (BSAI) commercial crab fisheries affected crab fishing jobs and earnings of Kodiak residents and sales of Kodiak businesses. The author found rapid and dramatic declines in both numbers of fishing boats and jobs, but emphasizes that this is a preliminary analysis of just a few specific effects of the new system and that it's too early to tell what the long-term effects will be.
In the fall of 2005, the federal government implemented major changes, known as "crab rationalization," in management of the BSAI crab fisheries. The earlier derby system, under which boats competed for an overall crab quota, was replaced by an individual fishing quota (IFQ) system, under which boats are limited to catch shares they either were allocated or they lease from other boats. Federal managers say the new system will improve safety and increase efficiency in the crab fisheries. (Another new and controversial feature of the system—which the report does not address—is implementation of quotas for processors and communities.)
The report found:
- Between the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons, the total number of boats registered for the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery (the most valuable of five major BSAI crab fisheries) dropped by two-thirds, from 251 to 89. Among just Kodiak boats, the number dropped from 54 to about 23.
- The number of jobs in the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery dropped by about 900, from nearly 1,400 in the 2004-05 season to under 500 in the 2005-06 season. Of those total job losses, roughly 100 to 180 were among Kodiak residents.
- About 85% of the drop in numbers of boats and jobs in the red king crab fishery is probably attributable to the rationalization program and about 15% to a vessel buy-back program.
- The total number of hours Kodiak residents worked in the red king crab fishery stayed about the same in 2005-06, despite the job losses, because the remaining fishermen worked nearly three times as many days. Still, the rationalization program probably reduced the earnings of Kodiak residents in that fishery by roughly $1 million to $1.6 million, a decline of more than 25% from the previous year. That's because the share of vessel earnings paid to fishermen declined under the new system.
- The new management system has cut into the sales of some Kodiak businesses that provide supplies and services to the crab fleet, but there was no obvious major decline among those businesses as a group during the first year of the rationalization program.
ISER Research Matters No. 13. Alaska's $5 Billion Dollar Health Care Bill—Who's Paying?
March 8, 2006
Spending for health care in Alaska was an estimated $5.3 billion in 2005, up from about $1.6 billion in 1991. Taking population growth into account, that's an increase of more than 170% per person in 15 years. Those are among the findings of a new ISER research summary, "Alaska's $5 Billion Health-Care Bill—Who's Paying?" The authors are Mark Foster and Scott Goldsmith. The 8-page summary also reports:
- The $5.3 billion spent for health-care in Alaska in 2005 was about one-third the value of North Slope oil exports—in a year when oil prices were high. It's one-sixth the value of everything Alaska's economy produced last year.
- Individual Alaskans spent about $1 billion of the total in 2005, up from $360 million in 1991.
- Employers (government and private) spent over $2 billion in 2005. For comparison, employers spent about $11.8 billion for wages last year.
- Government programs paid $2.2 billion of the $5.3 billion total. Medicaid alone made up nearly $1 billion of that spending.
- National data show that just 5% of patients account for nearly half of all U.S. health-care spending. The average high-cost patient is middle-aged, sees doctors several times a year, is in the hospital for a few days for surgery, and spends considerable money on prescription drugs.
- Health-care spending in Alaska could double again by 2013, if current trends continue.