Author Archives: Brian Easton

Capital Cattle: Are Today’s Students Being Milked by the Older Generation?

This entry was posted in Education, Listener on 29th March 1997 by Brian Easton.

Listener 29 March 1997.

Keywords: Education

Funding of tertiary education has changed dramatically from the days when virtually any eligible young person could go to university or a polytech mainly at the taxpayers expense. The new policy has been justified by “human capital theory”, which treats expenditure on education as if it is an investment which only enhances the student’s earning power. The commercial logic is people make private investment decisions about their education, deciding whether to go and which course to take, on the basis of the return to their income. There should be no public subsidies to distort their decisions.

A Permanent Revolution?

This entry was posted in Political Economy & History on 26th March 1997 by Brian Easton.

Revised version of lecture in the Stout Centre Seminar series “After the Revolution?”, 26 March, 1997, New Zealand Studies, July 1997, p.30-36.

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

It is over twelve years since the beginning of the revolution of the “commercialisation of New Zealand”.[1] Twelve years after the fall of the Bastille the French revolution was over, and Napoleon ruled. Twelve years after the October Revolution of 1917, the Russian revolution was over and Stalin had expelled Trotsky and Buhkarin. Neither country returned to a period of some sort of normality, but nor was there the view that the revolution was incomplete, and needed to be progressed.

Profit or Public Good: There Is Logic to Roger Kerr’s Views on Business Respon

This entry was posted in Business & Finance, History of Ideas, Methodology, Philosophy, Listener on 15th March 1997 by Brian Easton.

Listener 15 March, 1997

keywords Business Economics & Finance; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy

This column agrees with Roger Kerr, the executive director of the Business Roundtable, that “we should not confuse corporate social responsibility with gestures such as saving endangered species or sponsoring Christmas concerts in the park. If they are honest, most businesses that make these efforts admit they do to add value to their firm or brand.”

Twist and Shrink:

This entry was posted in Listener, Macroeconomics & Money on 1st March 1997 by Brian Easton.

Australia’s Experience of A High External Deficit Has Relevance Here.
Listener: 1 March, 1997.

Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;

John Edwards, adviser to the Paul Keating when he was Australian Treasurer and Prime Minister, is far too uncritical of his former boss to make his Keating: The Inside Story a great biography. But if the book lacks insight into Keating’s persona, Edwards – an economist and currently Chief Economist for Société Générale in Sydney – provides a fascinating account of the economic policy making.

Ignoring the Critics:

This entry was posted in Listener, Macroeconomics & Money on 15th February 1997 by Brian Easton.

One Recent Economics Publication Offers Diversity, Another Ideology.
Listener: 15 February, 1997.

Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;

Over the years I have collected a bibliography of about 500 books and article on the economic reforms since 1984, reflecting numerous accounts of what happened. It is not comprehensive – simply the items I have referred to in my writings. By a judicious selection one can select a subset of these references which demonstrates the muldoonist analysis of the reforms was correct, or a marxist one, or a crude keynesian, or a social credit one, or whatever. You would not have to do that for a new right account of the reforms. Instead you would go to a recent article “Economic Reform in New Zealand 1984-95: The Pursuit of Efficiency” by Lewis Evans, Arthur Grimes, David Teece, and Bryce Wilkinson, published in the Journal of Economic Literature.

Engineers and Nation Builders

This entry was posted in Political Economy & History on 5th February 1997 by Brian Easton.

Keynote Address to the 1997 “Engineering Our Nation’s Future” Conference of the Institution of Professional Engineers of New Zealand, Wellington, February 5th.

Keywords: Political Economy & History

Today’s lecture is work in progress, which will one day become a book called something like “The Nation Building State”. It is concerned with one of the dominant themes of New Zealand’s economic and social development, the use of the state to build the nation, and the curiosity that in the mid 1980s that theme suddenly disappeared. Engineers had a central role in this nation building, so it is good to have an opportunity to talk to you about it. After all if we do not have an understanding of our past – from whence we came from, why we are where we are – then engineers will have little influence over the nation’s future, and where we are going.

How Accurate Are the Incomes Reported in the Household Economic Survey?

This entry was posted in Statistics on 3rd February 1997 by Brian Easton.

This paper was preliminary, and circulated for discussion in 1997 (This version revised in 2000). The issues it raises were taken up by Statistics New Zealand and have been largely dealt with. (A major revision has been to the household weightings. It is placed here on the website, because occassionally researchers using the earlier data ask for it. But it illustrates the universal rule of always checking one the quality of one’s data before using it

Keywords: Statistics;

Introduction

As the result of a generous grant for then Prince Albert College Trust, it has been possible to place in the public domain for research purposes, quasi-unit records (QURs) from the household economic survey (HES),[1] one of the regular surveys administered by Statistics New Zealand.

Dispirited News:

This entry was posted in Governance, Listener on 1st February 1997 by Brian Easton.

A World-leading Academic Found Not All is Well in the Public Sector
Listener: 1 February, 1997.

Keywords: Governance;

The last minute decision to make Jenny Shipley Minister of State Services may reflect looming problems in the state sector. The underlying issues are set out in a recently published report, The Spirit of Reform.

The Political Economy Of Fish

This entry was posted in Business & Finance, Listener, Political Economy & History on 18th January 1997 by Brian Easton.

Dr Sutch Looked At Our Fishing Industry 35 Years Ago. What Would He Think Today?
Listener 18 January, 1997

Keywords: Business & Finance; Political Economy & History;

The fishing industry may not seem a likely paradigm for New Zealand’s economic history. Yet in January 1962, Dr Bill Sutch, public servant, economist, historian, writer, and New Zealand nationalist, persuaded a Nelson WEA summer school it was. Sadly, however, there is no written record of the speech. The challenge is to try to reconstruct it.

Quardle Oodle Ardle: What Happens when an Economist Writes a Poem?

This entry was posted in Listener, Literature and Culture on 28th December 1996 by Brian Easton.

Listener: 28 December, 1996.

Keywords: Literature and Culture;

The End Of the Golden Wether

This entry was posted in Growth & Innovation, Listener, Macroeconomics & Money on 14th December 1996 by Brian Easton.

The economic earthquake, thirty years ago this week, continues to shape New Zealand.

Listener: 14 December, 1996.

Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money;

On 14 December 1966 the Wool Commission found itself buying in bales of wool offered for auction. This arrangement had been devised in the early 1950s to provide a floor price for wool, evening out the troughs in the fluctuations for the commodity whose price was set mainly on the auction floor. Each year a floor price was set. When offers were below this level the Commission would bid – on occasions even make small purchases – to push up the price to above the set floor level. But typically their involvement was minuscule.

Institutional Economics and the Theory Of Value: Essays in Honor Of M. Tool

This entry was posted in History of Ideas, Methodology, Philosophy on 1st December 1996 by Brian Easton.

Edited by Charles M.A. Clark (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston,1995)
Review published in Prometheus, Vol 14, No 2, December 1996, p 291-293.

Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;

According to the Palgrave Dictionary of Economics institutional economics has been the principle school of heterodox economic thought, apart from Marxism. Some of its practitioners are extremely well known – Thorstein Veblen, Wesley Mitchell, Gunnar Myrdal, J.K. Galbraith, and Ken Boulding (perhaps Joseph Schumpter) – but it is rare for the school to impinge on the central economics paradigm of neo-classical economics. The two seem like distant cousins, who are still not talking after a feud over the family inheritance.

Future Shocks

This entry was posted in Environment & Resources, Listener on 30th November 1996 by Brian Easton.

Some Private Forecasters Are Predicting A Major Energy Shortage in Less Than A Decade
Listener: 30 November, 1996.

Keywords: Environment & Resources;

Forecasting electricity is far from easy, as Electricity Supply and Demand to 2015 from the University of Canterbury Centre for Advanced Engineering makes clear. There are so many uncertainties: economic growth, the degree of energy conservation, the weather which affects the hydro lakes, what capacity will be built, the size of the Maui field supply of gas, and so on. Yet it seems there may well be a major energy shortfall after 2003 (and possibly earlier if there is a dry year which fails to fill the lakes). This is not just a one-off year of power cuts in a cold winter. The forecasters expect an ongoing shortage.

BRENDAN THOMPSON’S NEW ZEALAND WORKFORCE SERIES

This entry was posted in Labour Studies, Statistics on 30th November 1996 by Brian Easton.

Abstract Economic historian Brendan Thompson died earlier this year. His life’s scholarship involved calculating a series oft he New Zealand workforce. The paper reports on this work, and provides some of the aggregate data which Brendan had produced. Brendan James George Thompson, senior lecture in eco-nomic history at the University of Waikato, died in January…
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Maori Melting Pot

This entry was posted in Listener, Maori on 16th November 1996 by Brian Easton.

Wira Gardiner’s Return to Sender and some other books about the Maori
Listener 16 November, 1996.

Keywords: Maori

Hey, Pakeha. Ever been to a hui? You probably walked onto the marae at the back of the manuhiri. You were welcome, the Maori always make you very welcome on their marae, and they will feed you well. Later you sat quietly at the back.

Going to the Wall

This entry was posted in Listener, Macroeconomics & Money on 2nd November 1996 by Brian Easton.

The Cook Islands is in Crisis – its Economy Awaits Major Structural Change
Listener 2 November, 1996.

Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money

While “hitting the wall” is a phrase beloved by politicians and journalists, it is not a rigorous notion. If it means a crisis which is so drastic that there had to be major policy change, New Zealand did not hit the wall in 1984. There was a currency crisis, in which some people panicked, while others magnified it out of proportion to justify their policies and their grab for power. However the Cook Islands has not just had a currency crisis. It is facing the need for major structural change. Their economy might be said to be hitting the wall. In comparison, New Zealand’s was the bump of a dogem.

In Dire Straights

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Listener on 19th October 1996 by Brian Easton.

In a World that Favours Large Industrial Economies, are the Cook Islands Viable
Listener 19 October, 1996

Keywords Globalisation & Trade

Take the 18,000 odd population of one of the smaller New Zealand district councils. Scatter them across an ocean larger than the New Zealand landmass in 18 islands and atolls, and add the responsibilities of national governance. Except for location – they are three flying hours north of New Zealand – you have the Cook Islands.

Treasury Man: Bernard Carl Ashwin, Secretary to the Nation Building State

This entry was posted in Listener, Political Economy & History on 5th October 1996 by Brian Easton.

Listener: 5 October, 1996.

Keywords: Political Economy & History;

Bernard Ashwin was born on the banks of the Waikato, just a hundred years ago. He became one of the most powerful men in New Zealand. Keith Sinclair bracketed him with Prime Minister Peter Fraser, Minister of Finance Walter Nash, and the Federation of Labour (F.P. Walsh) in the 1940s. Ashwin’s influence continued for a quarter of a century after he retired. Yet he is hardly remembered in comparison to the other three.

Governing the Governor

This entry was posted in Listener, Macroeconomics & Money on 21st September 1996 by Brian Easton.

Should the Governor of the Reserve Bank Be Elected, Or is the Bank Just A Tool of Parliament?
Listener: 21 September, 1996.

Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;

Would you rather be voting for the Governor of the Reserve Bank than the parliament? A yes probably rests on the belief that the governor is more powerful than the prime minister. Irrespective of whether he is, his power comes from parliament, and he or she is but a eunuch without parliament’s command.