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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Presented to the Stout Research Centre ‘Research Roundup’ 17 October 2007 Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Invited to contribute to this Stout Centre Research Roundup, I was torn between telling you about the project I am working on, and the one which I have just…
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I prepared this note on 2 October, 2007, for some colleagues, following a discussion on the relevance of GDP targets. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; As far as I know the only government reference to getting back into the top half of the OECD on a GDP per capita basis is in the Growing…
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In September 2008 (16-18) I attended a Wellcome Trust sponsored conference in York England on the value of science education. We were invited to submit comments. Below is mine. Keywords: Education; Growth & Innovation; Dear Conference Delegates, You invited comments coming out of the conference. The following is a short one. …
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One small voyage for a ship, one giant leap for New Zealand. Listener: 2 June 2007. Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; Political Economy & History; This month, 125 years ago in 1882, the Dunedin docked at the Port of London with a cargo of meat from New Zealand that sold…
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Keywords: Education; Governance; Growth & Innovation; The judges of a singing contest, dissatisfied with the first diva, awarded the prize to the second without having heard her. The favouring of commercialisation in the late 1980s and early 1990s had a similar empirical base. We have now heard the second diva, and while she has…
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