Permanent Perhaps: Challenges to the Model in Alaska in Its First 30 Years

Abstract

Before tribal chiefs, kings, and sovereign governments obtained the power to control the exploitation of resources, the Earth and all of its land and minerals were freely available to everyone and exclusive to no one. The Alaska Permanent Fund (APF) and Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) offer the rest of the world a unique model for how natural resource wealth can be used to directly and equally benefit families, individuals, and households while largely bypassing tribal chiefs, kings, and sovereign governments. This chapter sets out the history of the APF and PFD since the first PFDs were paid in 1982 and discusses various challenges these two institutions have faced. As we show, this history does not demonstrate that Alaska’s citizen dividend is in stable equilibrium with the state’s political and economic environment.

The authors thank Theresa Philbrick and the many others who commented on drafts of this chapter.