Monthly Archives: June 2000

Economics in the Healthcare Sector

This entry was posted in Health on by .

Pharmac Annual Review 2000, p.24

Keywords: Health;

It is increasingly common for an economist has been approached by some group lobbying for the introduction of a new therapy, or perhaps by the government who wants some guidance. The therapy is expensive, and so the question of whether it can be used involves issues of costs and benefits. Answering that question or, more precisely, making an economic contribution to answering that question is rarely easy, and yet the welfare of patients depends on it. Not only the welfare of those who may be treated but, given the overall budget constraint, diverting resources to the treatment of one disease will leave others without treatment or on a waiting list.

Global Warnings

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Listener on by .

Listener:24 June, 2000.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;

I probably read a major article or a book on globalization every fortnight. One usually finishes thinking the authors do not know what they are talking about either. ‘Globalization’ means so many different things, even to the same writer, that one ends up in confusion. The best I can conclude is that massive technological changes are changing the potential economic geography of the world. Globalization is the financial, economic, social and political response. Different writers look at different facets of the whole, and miss the complexity of the totality.

Sonja Davies: 1923–2005

This entry was posted in Labour Studies, Political Economy & History on by .

Chapter 12, The Nationbuilders. (This was published in 2000, and does not record that Sonja died in June 2005.)

Keywords: Labour Studies; Political Economy & History;

The choice of people to be included in this book is based on a list of over forty names. For reasons similar to those of The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, only dead nationbuilders were considered. There were a number of women in the list, but despite my trying – with a grim political correctness – none fitted into the story the book was telling. (For instance, Te Puea was building the Tainui nation.) It is, after all, but one story from all of those of the New Zealand nation. Those who saw early drafts often drew attention to the omission, but could not suggest a suitable candidate.

The (Economic) Life Of Harry

This entry was posted in Listener, Political Economy & History on by .

Listener 10 June, 2000

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

So much history in New Zealand ignores the economic context in which the people’s lives take place – censored out, like death itself. Attending a recent funeral of an ordinary New Zealander, it occurred to me that I could illustrate my point in his life.