Paper to the Wayne University Law School, October 21, 2004. (Revised)
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
The Economist’s Meaning of Globalisation
Globalisation (or globalization) is much discussed today, although popular sentiment is, by the standards of scholarly discourse, opinionated, uniformed, and confused. The growing consensus among economic scholars may be summarised as follows:
Listener: 9 October, 2004.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
From “Sunset Beach” near the village of Falealupo, the most western part of the Samoan island of Savaii, one looks across the international dateline to tomorrow. Beyond it is New Zealand, where around 120,000 Samoans live – half of all our Pacific Islanders. Auckland is the largest Samoan city – should one say “congregation”? – in the world. Are we Samoa’s future?
Listener: 25 September, 2005. This economics column was designed to be set out in three parallel columns. That is not possible in this format. Instead final two columns are interleaved, to give a sense of the intended juxtaposition. The italics is used to indicate the different scenarios.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Macroeconomics & Money;
It seems possible that the New Zealand economy could eventually have a three percent boost as a result of the Doha Round’s elimination of dumping agricultural products into key New Zealand export markets. About a third will come from higher export prices, and two-thirds from the additional production – on and off the farm.
These are being offered to various conferences and seminars. In due course the completed papers will be put up on this website.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Political Economy & History;
When the international price of cotton and sugar is raised, why should we be pleased?
Listener: 31 July 2004.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
As unlikely as it may seem, cotton and sugar are playing a vital role in New Zealand’s economic prospects. A World Trade Organisation panel has just found in favour of a Brazilian – and others – complaint that the US is subsidising or “dumping” its exports of cotton. The panel concluded that the US action depresses international cotton prices, so other cotton exporters are getting lower than free – or fair – market prices. It rules that the dumping must stop.
Presentation to Hamilton Branch of the NZIIA, July 20, 2004.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
In late 2003 I was awarded a three year Marsden Grant to study globalisation and New Zealand’s role in it. Globalisation is a topic I have been long working upon, developing out of my earlier study of the New Zealand economy summarised in my book In Stormy Seas: The Post-War New Zealand Economy, whose theme was that the fate of New Zealand will be largely a consequence of what happens overseas, together with our ability to seize the opportunities and manage the problems. This paper sketches the research program, and looks at one of the issues – international trade.
The Constitutional Underpinnings of the United States Economic Performance.
Presentation to a Fulbright New Zealand Meeting, August 3 2004.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
I am not going to spend a lot of time thanking Fulbright New Zealand for its generous and visionary grant. The real value is demonstrated by its influence on my thinking. Today’s lecture and my subsequent work is the gratitude.
Listener: 26 June 2004.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
Economists have traditionally divided the economy into the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. The justification is long forgotten, but geographically, the primary sector – farming, fishing, forestry and mining – had to be close to the resources it processes, while the tertiary sector – services are the most prominent – had to be near its customers. Secondary – manufacturing – had more locational choice, which is why much policy was directed towards influencing its location. The categorisation was never perfect. Tourism is in the service sector, but it brings its customers to its location. Perhaps it should be reclassified as primary. Other service activities – the education of foreign students – also bring the customer to them. But in recent years, other chunks of the service industry have gone walkabout, as telecommunications costs have collapsed.
Listener 12 June 2004.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
Other than the New Zealand embassy, it was the only occasion I entered an official building in America without having to showing an identity card. For Congress (the American parliament) is insistent that little should come between them and their constituents. (But yes, there was the metal detector.)
Who really benefits from the US/Australian Free Trade Agreement?
Listener: 6 March, 2004.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
Free (or preferential) Trade Agreements (FTAs) may not always benefit the economies involved. Certainly, there will be sector beneficiaries, and their acolytes will loudly proclaim the benefits, but within an economy there will also be losers. Do the sector benefits outweigh others’ detriments? The economist’s answer is “not necessarily”.
Listener 10 January, 2004.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation;
The Netherlands produces annually about $9 billion of flowers and related products, of which it exports almost $8 billion (and imports and exports another billion). In contrast, New Zealand exports a paltry $70m. The difference is all the more astonishing because Michael Porter in The Competitive Advantage of Nations argues that the Dutch have no comparative advantage in the growing of flowers. Rather, they have built up a technological excellence and maintain a quality edge at the forefront of world production and distribution.
The Political Economy of the Diminishing Tyranny of Distance.
Accepted for publication by The Journal of Economic and Social Policy (January 2004: the original version was submitted in September 2002).
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
Abstract Globalisation can be treated as a consequence of the falling costs of distance, and its problems as arising from different sorts of distances reducing at different rates. The paper is written from the perspective of Australasia, which has suffered more and benefited more from the ‘tyranny of distance’, and will be ultimately impacted more by its falling costs.[1]
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
Introduction
The conditions for a Marsden Grant require some technology transfer above the publication of articles and teaching. My successful application for a contribution to my research program on globalisation proposed that I would establish a virtual New Zealand Centre for Globalisation Studies (NZCGS), since I am not in a position to supervise research students directly.
Paper for ‘New Zealand’s Role in World Affairs’ Conference, VUW, 5 December, 2003.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
A few months ago I was awarded a three year Marden Grant to study globalisation and New Zealand’s role in it. It is a topic I have been long working upon, developing out of my earlier study of the New Zealand economy summarised in my book In Stormy Seas: The Post-War New Zealand Economy, whose theme can be summarised as ‘the fate of New Zealand will be largely a consequence of what happens overseas, together with our ability to seize the opportunities and manage the problems those events.’
Listener: 1 November, 2003.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
Does it strike you as odd that we drink wine and eat cheeses from Europe and yet New Zealand exports them there? Or that Germans drive Renaults and the French drive Volkswagens? The phenomenon puzzled economists, too. Renaults and Volkswagens are different cars, but they are not that different. Neither the German nor French economies would collapse if they could not import cars: perhaps local manufacturers would make the foreign models, although substantial economies of scale keep the costs of this specialisation down (and diminishing costs of distance make the inter-regional trade possible). Consumers would be only marginally worse off.
Listener 16 October, 2003.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
The fate of New Zealand will be largely a consequence of what happens overseas, together with our ability to seize the opportunities and manage the problems it creates. The truism has been a constant preoccupation of mine, and was the title theme of my macro-economic history In Stormy Seas. Recently, I have been trying to understand more about the long-term trends in the world economy, a phenomenon sometimes called “globalisation”.
Listener October 4, 2003.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
Our economic debate is bedevilled by defeatism, the belief that New Zealand cannot survive as an independent nation. Rogernomes seem to conclude that since their policies failed, there is no alternative but for us to become a colony. But even many post-Rogernomes, typically trained in the ideal of the US economy, think we are too small and too distant to survive.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation;
Listener: 16 August, 2002
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
Joseph Stiglitz may be the most important economist outside government in today’s world. He first came to notice as the editor of the collected works of Paul Samuelson, the second most important economist of the 20th century. Stiglitz went on to innovate in economic theory (receiving a Nobel Prize in 2001 in the economics of information), write a number of major textbooks and hold positions in many major universities. From 1993 he served on Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers, going on to work in the World Bank in 1997. In 2000 he was forced out by a US administration who found his criticisms of them and the International Monetary Fund uncomfortable.
Chapter of TRANSFORMING NEW ZEALAND. This is a draft. Comments welcome.
Keywords: Business & Finance; Environment & Resources; Globalisation & Trade;
One of the curiosity of standard economics as it is presented to the public and, indeed, often as it is taught, is the neglect of transaction (and information) costs. Ronald Coase, recipient of a Nobel Prize in economics in 1991, for some seminal insights (identified 30 years earlier) into the way that economic behaviour is modified by them. The section on the Resource Management Act below, sketches the insight. Subsequently, a handful of economists, most prominently Joe Stiglitz who received the Nobel Prize in 2001, have elaborated their role. In fact a considerable amount of government activity is focussed on reducing transaction costs, despite their role often being overlooked. All the more puzzling because those most involved in the economic debate – economists, accountants, bureaucrats, lawyers, politicians, even managers of businesses – are at the transacting end rather than the providing end, of the economy.