Paper to the ‘Funding in the Health Sector Conference’: 28 September, 2009 Keywords: Health; Why is health funding a problem? The easy answer – the answer popular in the public policy debate – is to talk about the size of the health services sector, the proportion which is publically funded, especially in a…
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Paper to the Skeptics Society – 26 September, 2009 Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Today I want to reflect on the extent to which economics is a science and the extent to which it is not. In doing this I come from the approach of someone who was trained a scientist, who…
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Spending on health care is rising rapidly – but there’s one thing we could do. Listener: 26 September, 2009. Keywords: Health; We are told that the health-care sector is a drag on the economy. It is growing faster than the economy as a whole and is chewing up a fifth of core…
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Notes for Seminar 22 September, 2009. Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; While there is much talk about New Zealand catching up with Australia in per capita GDP terms there is not a lot of careful economic analysis. The accompanying graph shows the record over the last forty odd years. In 1967…
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If nothing is done, our credit rating will be downgraded and interest rates will rise. Listener: 12 September, 2009. Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; When the economy plunged in 1975 as a result of the first international oil shock, the Labour Government increased public borrowing. But when the world economy recovered, the New…
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Letter to National Business Review, 11 September, 2009 Keywords: Health; Dear Editor, In his profile of me (4 September 2009), John Bishop compares my estimate of the cost of alcohol misuse ($16.1b) with that of the BERL estimate ($5.3b). Aside that they are for different years, and in different prices, they are not comparable because…
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This is the draft of a paper for 2009 Conference of the New Zealand Statistical Association, 3 September 2009. The presentation was a PowerPoint based on it. It is part of a study of the impact of drinking by associates undertaken by the Centre for Social and Health Outcomes, Research and Evaluation (SHORE), Massey University….
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This is the draft of a paper for 2009 Conference of the New Zealand Statistical Association, 3 September 2009. The presentation was a PowerPoint based on it. It is part of a study of the impact of drinking by associates undertaken by the Centre for Social and Health Outcomes, Research and Evaluation (SHORE), Massey University….
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3 September, 2009 at the NZIER AGM Citation Keywords: Miscellaneous; I am deeply touched and honoured to be awarded this generous prize, and embarrassed by the even greater generosity of the accompanying citation. Normally it would be a time to mention all those who have mentored and supported me over the…
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Citation of Award made on 3 September, 2009 at the NZIER AGM Keywords: Miscellaneous; The NZIER Economic Award’s Operating Guidelines enjoin the Awarding Panel to “look for outstanding contributions to the advancement of economics and its applications in New Zealand”. To qualify for the Award, a contribution “must advance economic matters of direct…
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