Regions and Resources: Strategies for Development

by Oliver Goldsmith, David Kresge, Daniel Seiver

Citing decisions that show effective long-range planning policies, such as Alberta's Heritage Savings Trust Fund and Alaska's Permanent Fund, this book points out that even in our imperfect, non-self-regulating world, a state or region that is rich in valuable resources can design innovative policies that improve the welfare of residents and provide a cushion for boom and bust cycles of the future. It develops a general analytical description of a resource-based regional economy and uses that analysis to construct a model of a specific economy--Alaska--that can be used to evaluate current policy issues and aid planners in devising efficient and beneficial development plans for other resource-rich regions. The model is applied to Alaska's experience following development of its North Slope petroleum resources and projects trends of growth under different scenarios to the year 2000. The effects of specific policy actions such as direct distribution of oil revenues, income tax cuts, public investment programs, manpower training programs, local hire provisions, and subsidies for new industries are analyzed. And the question of what state and regional economies can do to exercise control over their own future through the use and conservation of their resources, is explored in a final chapter. This book is included in the Harvard-MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies Series.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published May 9, 1984