Study
| EST. READ TIME 1 MIN.Reforming Alberta's Heritage Fund: Lessons from Alaska and Norway
The governments of Alberta, Alaska, and Norway have all created funds in which to deposit some of the revenues they receive from non-renewable natural resource activities. Despite Alberta?s rich natural resource endowments, its Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund is smaller than the others because of its relative underfunding and because of chronic withdrawals of most income from the fund. This paper explores the history and structure of the three funds, and offers recommendations for reform in Alberta, including a formal rule for the contribution percentage and institutional mechanisms to encourage proper fund management.
The paper finds that if the Alberta government had consistently deposited 25 percent of its non-renewable resource revenues from 1982-2011?as the Alaskan constitution requires?total contributions would have been $42.4 billion, rather than the actual contributions of $9.1 billion during this period. And if the Alberta government had followed Norway?s example, and contributed 100 percent of its non-renewable resource revenues into its Heritage Fund, then from 1982-2011 total contributions would have been $169.5 billion, rather than $9.1 billion.
In order to fulfill its mission of preserving Alberta?s rich resource wealth for future generations, the government should seriously study the lessons from Alaska and Norway laid out in this study.
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Jason Clemens
Executive Vice President, Fraser InstituteJason Clemens is the Executive Vice President of the Fraser Institute and the President of the Fraser Institute Foundation. Hehas an Honors Bachelors Degree of Commerce and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Windsor as well as a Post Baccalaureate Degree in Economics from Simon Fraser University. Before rejoining the Fraser Institute in 2012, he was the director of research and managing editor at the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute and prior to joining the MLI, Mr. Clemens spent a little over three years in the United States with the San Francisco-based Pacific Research Institute. He has published over 70 major studies on a wide range of topics, including taxation, government spending, labor market regulation, banking, welfare reform, health care, productivity, and entrepreneurship. He has published over 300 shorter articles, which have appeared in such newspapers as The Wall Street Journal, Investors Business Daily, Washington Post, Globe and Mail, National Post, and a host of U.S., Canadian, and international newspapers. Mr. Clemens has been a guest on numerous radio and television programs across Canada and the United States. He has appeared before committees of both the House of Commons and the Senate in Canada as an expert witness and briefed state legislators in California. In 2006, he received the coveted Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 award presented by Caldwell Partners as well as an Odyssey Award from the University of Windsor. In 2011, he was awarded (along with his co-authors) the prestigious Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award for the best-selling book The Canadian Century. In 2012, the Governor General of Canada on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen, presented Mr. Clemens with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of his contributions to the country.… Read more Read Less… -
Robert P. Murphy
Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute
Robert P. Murphy is a Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute and Chief Economist at Infineo and author of the widely acclaimed book,Choice: Cooperation, Enterprise, and Human Action. He is also a Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute. He received his Ph.D. in economics from New York University. Previous positions include Research Assistant Professor with the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University, Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics at Hillsdale College, Senior Economist at the Institute for Energy Research, Visiting Scholar at New York University, Research Analyst at Laffer Associates, and Senior Fellow in Business and Economic Studies at the Pacific Research Institute. Prof. Murphy runs the blog, Free Advice and hosts the podcast, The Bob Murphy Show. He is the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal, The Study Guide to Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market, The Human Action Study Guide, The Study Guide to The Theory of Money & Credit by Ludwig von Mises, and Lessons for the Young Economist. He has also written hundreds of economics articles for the layperson, has given numerous radio and television interviews on such outlets as Fox Business and CNBC, and is active on Twitter (@BobMurphyEcon).… Read more Read Less…
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