Author Archives: Brian Easton

The Meaning Of Influence

This entry was posted in Listener, Macroeconomics & Money on by .

Once more on monetary policy, the Reserve Bank and ‘control’.

Listener 21 May, 1994 This is the fourth of a sequence of four columns written in the early 1990s about monetary policy, which continue to be relevant today. They are
The Hole in the Reserve Bank
What the Reserve Bank Believes
Who Controls the Exchange Rate?
The Meaning of Influence

Keywords Macroeconomics & Money

In his April 16 reply to my Who Controls the Exchange Rate?, the Governor of the Reserve Bank tried to distinguish between “control” and “influence” of the exchange rate. Since I want to avoid arguments about words rather than things, I shall withdraw the use of the term “control”. (I was using it in the way systems engineers do.) So let me rephrase and simplify my argument.

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH

This entry was posted in Growth & Innovation, Labour Studies on by .

Address to the 1994 National Biennial Conference of the New Zealand Engineering Union, 13-15 May, Christchurch.   Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Labour Studies;   Today I want to discuss economic growth strategies, by looking at the vision which underpins the Employment Contracts Act (ECA), and the alternative. One of the central tenants of a good…
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The Legacy Of a Poet: Milton! Thou Should Be Living in This Hour.

This entry was posted in Listener, Literature and Culture on by .

Listener: 7 May, 1994.

Keywords: Literature and Culture;

Economists were once thought to be among the liberal and progressive sections of the intelligentsia. Today they are thought of as curmudgeonly philistines. As a mild protest I thought I should write about the poet and pamphleteer John Milton, who lived in the 17th century, more than 100 years before the word economy gained the meaning it has today. England then had about the same population as New Zealand today, but it was more rural, with London, the largest city, about half the size of Christchurch.

Friends in High Places: Rogernomic Policies Have Powerful Allies in Australia

This entry was posted in Growth & Innovation, Listener on by .

Listener 23 April, 1994.

Keywords: Growth & Innovation;

Australian Michael Pusey triggered a national debate with his book Economic Rationalism in Canberra: A Nation-Building State Changes Its Mind. In it the sociology professor at the University of New South Wales argues that senior federal public servants now favour the New Right approach called economic rationalism (Australian for Rogernomics) and have abandoned the values and objectives that traditionally dominated the public service. Although economic rationalism has been around for some time, the book caused a storm.

Contract, Covenant, Compact: the Social Foundations Of New Zealand Governance

This entry was posted in Governance, History of Ideas, Methodology, Philosophy, Maori on by .

WHAKAPAPA: This is an April 1994 revision of an address to the Spring Lecture Series on Political Integrity, for the St Andrew’s Trust for the Study of Religion and Society, Thursday 4th of October, 1990. It contains material from a presentation to Forum North, a celebration of the Treaty of Waitangi, held at Whangarei, 10 November, 1990. The original address is available on Replay Radio, following its broadcast on National Radio, October 23, 1990. The almost full text of the original address was published in Socialist Politics 90/3,4, and an extract was published in The Dominion, 15 October,1990.)

Keywords: Governance; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Maori;

The moral authority of governance in New Zealand is based on a social contract, perhaps moreso than any other country. The “Social Contract” rests on the proposition that mankind is both an individual and a social animal. This creates a tension, for living in a society involves some alienation of one’s individuality. Yet to live outside society involves a loss of one’s full potential. There is no perfect solution to the tension, although many have been proffered.

Alan Danks: Economics Teacher

This entry was posted in History of Ideas, Methodology, Philosophy on by .

Prepared in March 1994 shortly after Alan’s death in December 1993. He was 79.

Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;

I last met Alan Danks in the Wellington Public Library, standing there among the book stacks, with an enormous pile of novels for the week’s reading. He talked of how he never considered himself an economist, but only an economics teacher, for when he was young there was not an economics profession in the public service and business. This exceptionally tall man always looked down on me, seemingly ending his sentences with an unspoken “boy”. Yet it was a modest remark. “Only” an economics teacher: he was a great economics teacher, the best I had.

Growth Prospects: Is Our Current Growth Rate Sustainable?

This entry was posted in Growth & Innovation, Listener on by .

Listener 12 March, 1994.

Keywords: Growth & Innovation;

The available indicators suggest that the New Zealand economy was growing quickly at the end of 1993, at around four percent a year. For some this is the triumphant proof of the long promised benefits of the Rogernomic economic strategy. For others the indicators are misleading (certainly, not everyone or all parts of the economy are benefiting from the growth). For myself, the new data provide a chance to re-examine the underlying state of the economy.

Who Controls the Exchange Rate?

This entry was posted in Listener, Macroeconomics & Money on by .

The Reserve Bank says its influence is overrated.

Listener 26 February 1994 This is the third of a sequence of four columns written in the early 1990s about monetary policy, which continue to be significant today. They are
The Hole in the Reserve Bank
What the Reserve Bank Believes
Who Controls the Exchange Rate?
The Meaning of Influence

Keywords Macroeconomics & Money

In my last column I remarked that the Reserve Bank sometimes makes confusing and contradictory statements. In this I want to give an example.

Taxing Alcohol

This entry was posted in Health, Regulation & Taxation, Social Policy on by .

Presentation to “Perspectives for Change”, a conference convened by the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand at Ohinemutu Marae, Rotorua, 20-23 February, 1994.

Keywords: Health; Regulation & Taxation; Social Policy

Given the brevity of the time available, this paper simply states a series of propositions about using taxation as a means of regulating alcohol use. The presenter has long been an advocate of an appropriate level of tax on alcohol to limit abuse and to pay the social costs of the abuse. While reaffirming this position, the paper is directed to the thesis that taxation for this purpose is a limited policy instrument, and that other instruments will have to be increasingly used if we want to obtain the socially optimal level of alcohol consumption. This presentation summarizes a series of papers on the economic regulation of licit drugs, which are listed in the appendix. This work draws on the parallel literature on the use and abuse of tobacco, where the similarities and differences are instructive.

What the Reserve Bank Believes

This entry was posted in Listener, Macroeconomics & Money on by .

Listener 12 February 1994 This is the second of a sequence of four columns written in the early 1990s about monetary policy, which continue to be significant today. They are
The Hole in the Reserve Bank
What the Reserve Bank Believes
Who Controls the Exchange Rate?
The Meaning of Influence

Keywords Macroeconomics & Money

Do the monetary policies of the Reserve Bank (RBNZ) cause unemployment? The RBNZ economists have little doubt that there is some sort of connection. I am not referring to the RBNZ’s public statements, which I find confusing and even contradictory, but to what their economists write. Monetary Policy and the New Zealand Financial System, published in 1992 (after the 1990 Reserve Bank Act), has two separate diagrams in chapters written by different economists which show linkages. A simplified summary accompanies this column.

The Maori Electoral Enrolment Option Campaign

This entry was posted in Governance, Maori on by .

Evidence to the Waitangi Tribunal. subsequently attached as evidence to the High Court. (February 1994) The additional evidence to the High Court was primarily rebuttal evidence. (August 1994) Extracts from it are appended to this report.

Keywords: Governance; Maori; Statistics;

1. I am a research economist and social statistician, and I work as a consultant.

2. I have been asked by the Maori Congress to assist the Waitangi Tribunal by presenting and reviewing some statistics on various expenditures by the Crown on matters similar to the that of informing and enabling Maori to enrol on the Maori roll.

Curiouser and Curiouser

This entry was posted in Growth & Innovation, History of Ideas, Methodology, Philosophy, Listener on by .

Listener 29 January 1994.

Keywords: Growth & Innovation; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;

Economics is a profession where 40-year-olds usually give up serious research,proclaiming platitudes instead. But Bryan Philpott is still an active researcher, six years after retirement, His greatest love, which goes back to the 1950s when he worked for the Meat and Wool Economic Service, is the determinants of economic growth. The farm accounts series from the 1920s, which he and associates derived in the 1920s, which he and associates derived in the 1960s, is still definitive. Even more valuable is the economy-wide comprehensive database from the 1950s, filling in gaps in the official series. More recently, students under Philpott’s supervision have been extending his unique capital series back to the last century.

A Wolf in Lion’s Clothing

This entry was posted in History of Ideas, Methodology, Philosophy on by .

Listener 15 January 1994.

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Macroeconomics & Money;

I knew Wolfgang Rosenberg before I wanted to enter economics. I sort of blame him for my becoming an economist. At a student camp, he talked on .’The Dangers of Being an Economist’. Such camps are notorious for long nights and late mornings. My concentration slipped during the lecture. It sounded fun, .For Wolf, it has been dangerous. He came here as a 22-year-old German refugee, arriving on a day he now celebrates as if it was a birthday. Perhaps because of the dreadful events of Nazi Germany, Wolf cares passionately about economic issues, which is dangerous, and has been outspoken on them, which is even more dangerous. He has been publicly abused in Parliament and, no doubt, on many less formal occasions.

New Zealand Can Be Different and Better, by Wolfgang Rosenberg

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Growth & Innovation, Macroeconomics & Money on by .

Review published in , Vol 3, No 3, (Issue 11) Summer 1993, p.5-6.

Keywords:Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money;

Those who wish to challenge Wolfgang Rosenberg’s policy prescriptions must confront the outstanding performance of the New Zealand economy in the first part of the postwar era. In the three decades from the mid-1930s, following the recovery from the depths of the interwar depression: the economy grew as fast as – or faster than – the rest of the OECD; the rate of inflation was slightly below the average; the overseas debt was not compromising; and there was full employment, (Rosenberg puts the break point in 1975, although the last decade was not as good as the period up to 1966.)

Suffer the Children

This entry was posted in Distributional Economics, Social Policy on by .

Listener 27 November, 1993.

Keywords Distributional Economics; Social Policy;

Some months ago I was invited to speak to a seminar on ‘Family Issues’ – I willingly accepted (the seminar, held last month, was a joint effort by Barnardo’ s and Birthright,reflecting the increasing co-operation between the two organisations concerned about different aspects of child needs). Although there has been a lot of amateurish work on quantitative aspects of family poverty in recent years, there are important things to be said, When I prepared my paper I found that the conclusions I had reached warranted my triple-checking the double check. Two of them were spectacular.

Why We Need Business Histories

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

Archifacts October 1993, p.32-43.

Keywords: Business & Finance; Political Economy & History;

When invited to give an outsider’s, or even user’s, view of the role of business history in the wider intellectual community, I responded with some diffidence. When pressed I agreed to give a personal account, from someone who has been working in economics and related social sciences for a number of years, and who is not without a sympathy to history.

The Maori Geothermal Claim: a Pakeha Economist’s Perspective

This entry was posted in Environment & Resources, Maori, Political Economy & History on by .

Paper to be presented to the Waitangi Tribunal to assist an inquiry into various Maori claims concerning geothermal resources (Wai 153). September 1993?

Keywords: Environment & Resources; Maori; Political Economy & History;

1. Introduction and Disclaimer


1.1 As the title emphasises, this paper is no more than an attempt by a Pakeha economist to canvas some issues associated with the Maori claim to geothermal resources.

Fishing and the Chatham Islands

This entry was posted in Business & Finance, Environment & Resources, Statistics on by .

AFFIDAVIT in the High Court of New Zealand BETWEEN Te Iwi Moriori Trust Board (First Plaintiff) Moriori Tchakat Henu Association of Rekohu Incorporated (Second Plaintiff) and The Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission (Defendant) (September 1993)

Keywords: Business & Finance; Environment & Resources; Maori; Statistics;

I, Brian Henry Easton, economist and social statistician of Wellington do swear

1. Following the obtaining of degrees in mathematics and economics I have practised for over 25 years in universities in New Zealand and overseas, in research institutions, and latterly as a private researcher and consultant. A copy of my short C. V. is attached. I have taught, researched, and written in many areas related to this case, including the economics of development.

2. I have been asked by the plaintiffs to assess the significance of the fishing industry to the Chatham Islands (Rekohu).

3. My basic conclusion is that the future of the Chatham Islands is vitally dependent upon its fishing industry, more so than any other region. I also indicate how a population based rule is especially against the interests of a region as dependent upon fishing as these islands.

Te Whakapakari Paapori, Ohanga O Muriwhenua

This entry was posted in Growth & Innovation, Maori on by .

TOWARDS AN IWI DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR THE MURIWHENUA
Submission to the Waitangi Tribunal on behalf of the Ruunanga o Muriwhenua. The views expressed are my own, and should not be taken to reflect those of the Ruunanga, the Muriwhenua Iwi, the Maori, the Tribunal, or the Crown.) Revised 22 June 1993

Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Maori;

Introduction

1.1 This report has been commissioned to assist the Waitangi Tribunal in its deliberations on the claims of the Ruunanga o Muriwhenua, on behalf of the Muriwhenua Iwi of the Far North of New Zealand, as a part of the settlement for long standing grievances.

THE NEW INTERVENTIONISM

This entry was posted in Growth & Innovation, Listener on by .

Listener. March 20, 1993 Back in the 1960s, different disciplines at the University of Sussex made a commitment to work together. The more advanced social statistics course was taught to all social scientists, psychology tutorials were taken by an economist and economics students were taught by a psychometrician, To this multidisciplinary environment came a young…
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