Economic aspects of technological accidents : an evaluation of the Exxon Valdez oil spill on southcentral Alaska.

Bibliography: p. 382-396

Two analyses are conducted to examine the economic aspects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill on the communities of southcentral Alaska. First, a stochastic time-series model is employed to forecast the aggregate earnings that would have been achieved in the absence of the oil spill. This evaluation indicates that while the accident's proceeds were not distributed evenly across all communities in the affected region, this catastrophic event generated substantial aggregate monetary benefits in the short term. This analysis is followed by an examination of the oil spill's ex-vessel revenue impacts on each of southcentral Alaska's major fishery products. It is concluded that the economic boom motivated by the oil spill obscured a decline in the profitability of commercial fishing and exacerbated the deterioration of international market conditions for the region's fishery products