This was a think-piece which underpins the Listener column of December 11, 2010.. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Political Economy & History; This note is a chain of reasoning, rather than an essay or chapter with a conclusion. Although it may shed light on some contemporary issues discussed in the final paragraphs, the paper arose out…
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Cheese as a metaphor for the New Zealand economy. Listener: 11 December, 2010. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Political Economy & History; Our first cheese was probably made shortly after Samuel Marsden brought cows to New Zealand. For most of the 19th century, cheese was made on farms for local supply. Before export refrigeration, which began…
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For the 131st AGM of the New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association, 13 September, 2001 in Christchurch. (Revised) Keywords: Business & Finance; Globalisation and Trade; Growth & Innovation; This presentation takes place barely a week after the Great Canterbury Earthquake. It is a tribute to the fortitude of those who are here and their ancestors…
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Business Herald, 26 March 2010. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; While accelerating the rate of GDP – even catching up with Australia – may be an official aspiration it is not simply a matter of trebling productivity as one businessman airily explained to me; he changed the topic when I asked how his firm is going…
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If you wanted to close the gap with Australia, wouldn’t you look at why the gap exists? Listener: 6 March, 2010. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; A meta-analysis brings together all the existing research studies, pooling their conclusions to get an overall one that is more precise and revealing than the individual studies. John Hattie, professor…
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Our glut of overseas borrowing is like a disease eating away at the economy. Listener: 24 October, 2009. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money; If a large highly productive foreign-exchange-earning sector emerged, it would squeeze the existing tradeable sector: exporters, and industries that compete with imports. Not only would it earn foreign exchange more…
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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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Unfortunately, there’s no magic bus to accelerate us to Australian levels of income. Listener: 15 August, 2009. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Sometime in the 1960s, New Zealand economic growth went through a “climacteric”, a point when the growth rate started slowing down. Think of it like driving your car up a hill. Once it starts…
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There are at least three good reasons that the restructuring of our largest city will fail. Listener: 25 July, 2009. Keywords: Governance; Growth & Innovation; Author Bruce Jesson once said New Zealand was a “hollow society”. He meant that although we had a central government and individuals, the social institutions between them…
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Paper to the 50th Anniversary Conference of the New Zealand Association of Economists: 1 July, 2009: Wellington. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Statistics; This paper looks only at the first 25 years of the New Zealand research program on economic growth. It focuses on the empirical analysis but refers…
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If it weren’t for good old chemistry, where would New Zealand be? Listener: 24 January, 2009 A background to this column is ‘My (Almost) Chemical Career’ at http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1541 Keywords: Education; Growth & Innovation; I almost became a chemist. In the upper forms at Christchurch Boys’ High School I had an inspiring chemistry teacher, Alan Wooff….
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Presentation to Auckland Regional Council: 29 October. 2008. Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Governance; Growth & Innovation; Aucklanders sometimes talk about wanting to have a ‘world class city’. Since any city can be world class in its class, that is not a very ambitious goal. The issue is in which class does Auckland want to be?…
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Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; 1. Macroeconomic Issues 1.1 The International Financial Crisis is leading to a world economic recession. Nobody knows how deep or long it will be. It is bound to impact on New Zealand and will take up a lot policy time in the near future. 1.2…
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There’s no quick fix for our differences with Australia. Listener: 4 October, 2008. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; The way we discuss our -relationship with the Australian economy might be a good indication of the shallowness of economic debate in New Zealand. It’s true that on many measures – most notably per…
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What the electoral economic debate is really about. Listener: 9 August 2008. Keywords: Distributional Economics; Growth & Innovation; Although the rhetoric of economic debate is about accelerating economic growth, the reality of politics is mainly about redistributing income. Merrill Lynch told the Australian insurance industry it would make a $200 million…
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Presentation to a Union Gathering: July 2, 2008 Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; Political Economy & History; Central to policy is that there are always new forces which are requiring to adapt policies to new circumstances – what may be called ‘ongoing modernisation’. There are three major sources of these forces. …
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Are journalists making the economic situation seem worse? Listener 31 May, 2008 Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Statistics; What is happening to journalism? You will recall that, last year, journalists campaigned for tax cuts based on a total misunderstanding of the Government accounts. They used the wrong measure of the Budget surplus, which…
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Why we rate poorly in the OECD’s output-per-person stakes. Listener: 17 May, 2008 Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Suppose your car goes slower than anyone else’s. What would you think if your mechanic said, “Get a new driver”, or “It should be painted red”, or “It needs a better carburettor” without first putting his head under…
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Revised Paper for a Seminar, 15 May 2008 Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Statistics; I have been asked to make a few remarks on research into economic growth in New Zealand. Let me begin with some preliminaries. Policy I am going to avoid suggesting any policy conclusions which might follow from the…
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This note was prepared for some colleagues. Keywords: Distributional Economics; Growth & Innovation; Th phrase ‘hollowing out’ is often used to cover a multitude of poorly thought through ideas which have lots of rhetoric but perhaps not much intellectual content. Here I am going to try to give the notion some analytical rigour…
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