Alaska Economy: An Overview

Abstract

Understanding the composition of the Alaska economy is important for research, policy analysis, and project assessment. This report provides a fundamental description of the Alaska economy using basic economic principles and measures of economic activity. Measurements such as employment, income, wages, and output serve as the basis for this analysis. When used together, these measures provide a more complete view of the economy than any single economic measure. Section I of this report describes the Alaska economy as a whole by identifying the most important dimensions of economic activity, introducing the measures used to observe this activity, and describing the major changes in these measures over the past twenty years. Section II analyzes the structure of the Alaska economy by breaking the economy into its major components and describing the contribution of each sector.