Planning for a Resource-Rich Region: The Case of Alaska
构建了一个模型，用于估算资源开发对区域经济的影响，并评估应对这些影响的区域政策，以阿拉斯加石油开发为例分析了不同财政政策的效果。
Development of the nation's natural resources, particularly its energy resources, has become a matter of increasing concern in recent years. One cause for concern is that such developments are frequently of large scale and can have major impacts on the region in which the resource is located. We report on a model which has been developed to estimate the regional economic impacts of resource development and, more specifically, evaluate regional policies designed to deal with these impacts. The model is used to analyze the situation confronting Alaska as its petroleum resources are developed to meet the nation's energy needs. The results obtained from the Alaska model are of direct interest because Alaska is such a prominent part of the overall U.S. energy picture. In addition, Alaska offers an excellent laboratory for a general analysis of the resource development process. Although the magnitudes of the development projects in Alaska are unusually large, this does not change the nature of the process; it merely makes the impacts easier to identify. We give below a brief description of the structure of the Alaska model, along with a few summary statistics from historical situations. The model is then used to examine the implications of several major fiscal policy strategies available to the state. Finally, some tentative guidelines are offered for the design of effective policy strategies in regions experiencing major resource developments.