Author Archives: Brian Easton

Research and Development Spending:

This entry was posted in Growth & Innovation on by .

A COMPARISON BETWEEN NEW ZEALAND AND OTHER OECD COUNTRIES. Review NZ Science Review, Vol 50 (1) 1993, p.24-27.

Keywords: Growth & Innovation;

Every economy faces a problem as to how much it should spend on each commodity. In the typical market the decision is made by a multitude of individual purchases. No one person decides on how much bread should be made, but in a rough and ready way, the outcome seems broadly efficient and fair (if the income distribution is fair).

Prostate Economics

This entry was posted in Health, Listener on by .

Listener 20 February, 1993.

Keywords: Health Economics

The recent outburst over the relative importance between prostate cancer and cervical cancer has numerous aspects to it, some of which illustrate economic principles. Most people will be aware that women are prone to cancer of the cervix, and that regular examination can identify pre-cancerous conditions which usually can be simply treated to prevent cancer. The prostate gland in men’s lower abdomen – the location is presumably the reason the parallel is drawn – is also prone to cancer. Prostate examination can identify a cancerous condition but, and this is what is crucial for the economic analysis, treatment at this stage is not nearly as effective as treatment made after a positive cervical smear test.

The Decade Of Greed

This entry was posted in Business & Finance, Listener on by .

Listener: 6 February, 1993 Keywords: Business & Finance; Retiring BNZ managing director Lindsay Pyne will be remembered for his phrase, ‘The decade of greed’, well after his impressive achievement of turning around the Bank of New Zealand is long forgotten, The expression was used in an advertisement rejecting Winston Peters’s various calls for an inquiry…
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Asymmetrical Sex

This entry was posted in Listener, Regulation & Taxation on by .

Listener 23 January 1993.

Keywords: Regulation & Taxation;

As with many service industries, there is not a lot written on the economics of prostitution. Yet the activity has a peculiarity well worth reflecting upon in a column precipitated by the official committee inquiring into its relation to Aids.

Of Pigs and People

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

Listener 9 January, 1993.

Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy

This is about pigs. It could be in honour of Charles Lamb’s ‘A Dissertation on Roast Pig’ from which I learnt of the art of the essay, but I am not going to write about that. Nor am I going to write about Animal Farm where all animals were equal, but pigs were more equal than others. And, while I am: tempted to write about how pigs might fly and the health reforms might work, I leave that to Minister of Health Simon Upton, who also writes essays. As for ‘to market, to market’ the fate of the pigs involved is too painful to write about.

It’s in the Blood

This entry was posted in Health on by .

Listener 19 December, 1992

Keywords: Health;

Richard Titmuss’s The Gift Relationship: from Human Blood to Social Policy is one of the most insightful social-science texts of the 20th century. In it he shows that how a community handles its blood-transfusion service is a paradigm for its handling of overall social relations. Which makes it all the more telling to step back from the current row and place the quality of the blood supply in the context of the total health service.

The Challenge of Religion to Economics

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

St Andrew’s Trust for the Study of Religion & Society, 23 July, 1992. (There was a companion lecture in which Richard Randerson looked at the challenge of economics to religion.)   Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;   Adam Smith, often described as the founder of economics, never held a position in economics. He…
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Fences and Ambulances: an Economist Looks at Family Policy

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

Paper for ‘The Children’s, Young Persons and their Families Act -A Review’, A Public Seminar. Palmerston North College of Education, Friday July 10, 1992

Keywords Health; Social Policy

It is a curious, if instructive, oddity that our most famous quotation about health promotion does not appear in the Heineman Dictionary of New Zealand Quotations. We talk about the need to put fences at the top of the cliff, but the thrust of our social policy is the ambulance at the bottom -although in recent years it has been more like a cardphone from which one can ring a private cab. Fences and ambulances represent quite different ways of responding to social policy problems. The more erudite might refer to holistic social policy versus pathological social policy.

New Zealand’s 51 Best Books

This entry was posted in Literature and Culture on by .

Published in The Dominion in January 1992

Keywords: Literature and Culture;

This selection is a New Zealand response to 101 Best Australian Books, complied by John Arnold and Peter Pierce for November’s Bulletin magazine. Their selection was influenced by the personal inclinations of the compilers. within constraints to produce a representative listing in terms of subject, chronological spread and gender. They were limited to one book per author and appear to have ruled out books with multiple authors such The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. The Bulletin list is in alphabetical order. This is grouped into loose chronological order by subject (rather than by publication date).

Economic Instruments for the Regulation Of Licit Drugs

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

Paper for the Perspectives for Change Conference, sponsored by the New Zealand Drug Foundation and the Alcohol Liquor Advisory Council, 25-27 November, 1991.

Keywords Health, Taxation & Regualtion

This paper does not pursue the ‘why’ or ‘whether’ policy issues of the additional regulation of licit drugs such as alcohol and tobacco, except insofar as that is relevant to the ‘how’ of regulation. The paper focuses on only one aspect of the how, the use of ‘economic instruments’ of regulation.

The Economic Relationship Between Australia & New Zealand

This entry was posted in Globalisation & Trade, Growth & Innovation, Political Economy & History on by .

Australia-New Zealand: Aspects of a Relationship, Proceedings of the Stout Research Centre, Eighth Annual Conference, Stout Research Centre, 1991, 14pp

Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; Political Economy & History;

The three most important characteristics for property – “position, position, position” – are not so important in international economics, as the close economic link between the United Kingdom and New Zealand for almost a century indicates. Similarly that Australia is New Zealand’s nearest neighbour does not closely link the two economies.

Centesimus Annus: a Theological Challenge to Economists.

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

Listener 17 June, 1991.

Keywords History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy

Roman Catholic theology is much more interesting than Protestant. It is not that Protestants are boring, but Protestantism developed with the rise of the modern industrial economy; expecting an economic theology from it is a bit like asking a fish to give an account of water . Catholicism was thrown in at the deep end; its church and theology evolved before the modern market economy. Slowly and painfully they had to come to terms with it.

The Porter Project

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

Listener 3 June, 1991.

Keywords: Business & Finance; Globalisation & Trade;

Flavour of the moment is Upgrading New Zealand’s Competitive Advantage, the report of the so-called Porter Project. Its 178 pages (plus appendices) are riddled with badly labelled graphs; portentous diagrams which, on reflection, say nothing; chummy references to “our country”, when two of the three authors are Americans; and platitudes dressed up as ‘deep and meaningful sentiments.

Tikanga and Te Oneroa-o-tohe

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

Listener 20 May 1991, republished in in J. Gilbert, G. Jones, T. Vitalis, & R. Walker Introduction to Management in New Zealand (1992) p.77.

Keywords: Environment & Resources; Maori;

I was recently involved in a claim to the Waitangi Tribunal by the five Muriwhenua iwi, in the far north, for the return of their rangatiratanga over Te Oneroa-O-Tohe or, as Pakeha call it, Ninety Mile Beach. In the course of preparing my evidence I was struck by the depletion of kaimoana – offshore fish and shellfish – over the period of European involvement. We are so familiar with the destruction of fish, forest, bird and soil in the last 150 years that it is only rarely that we are made to confront the issue as to why it happened.

Stamp Collector Brierly

This entry was posted in Business & Finance, Listener on by .

Listener 6 May, 1991.

Keywords: Business & Finance;

It is a pity that Yvonne van Dongen did not write more about Ron Brierley the stamp collector in her book, Brierley: The Man Behind the Corporate Legend. He took up stamps at an early age, trading them at school – “Buy, sell or exchange stamps in room four during interval” – as the Kiwi Stamp Company. He even sent out reminder notices of debts owing -the headmaster is said to have been furious. “That boy Brierley is using the institution for his commercial gain. This business has got to stop.”

The Hole in the Reserve Bank

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

Listener 22 April, 1991. This is the first 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

When I left New Zealand in the mid-1960s there was a large hole where the Reserve Bank building was to be constructed. When I returned in the early 1970s the hole was still there. Apparently, a mistake had been made in the building’s foundations, which had to be ripped out; no easy task with the walls of a money vault. Reserve Bank foundations are like that, whether they are vault walls or the credibility of the bank’s policies.