Note that some of the original submission proved redundant. For ease of presentation they have been removed. An explanation of what happened is set out here. (I have not changed the numbering.) Introduction My name is Brian Easton. I have a doctorate of science from the University of Canterbury and hold other qualifications in economics,…
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AUT Policy Observatory May 2017 About this report This report is part of an ongoing series on urgent contemporary policy issues in Aotearoa New Zealand. This series has an objective of bringing academic research to bear on the economic, social and environmental challenges facing us today. The Policy Observatory Auckland University of Technology Private Bag…
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Big data can be used for good and it can be used for evil. Some recent public research illustrates the former but there are doubts about some private uses. It is not generally realised that Statistics New Zealand has a large research database – the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) – containing microdata about people and households from…
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Last week’s report on wellbeing and the household income distribution told us some new things. Are we listening? Sadly, the latest MSD report The Material Wellbeing of NZ Households, by Bryan Perry, released last week, passed by quickly. It said, broadly, that there is no obviously significant shift in the level of inequality in recent years….
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Speech at the launch of the VUP Book, 29 July, 2014. Keywords: Statistics; I want to begin by paying a tribute to Jack Baker who was Government Statistician between 1958 and 1969. I first met him as a lecturer in economics statistics as a part of my second year economics course – yes the Government…
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Symposium on Inequality: Causes and Consequences June 19, 2014 Keywords: Distributional Economics; Statistics; Introduction The purpose of this paper is to present some data on top market incomes in New Zealand. It updates an earlier paper by one year to 2011/2 and extends the estimates it back to 1936/7 . The background to…
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Statistical errors aren’t unusual – so it’s important to measure their effects. Listener: 13th March, 2014 Keywords: Distributional Economics; Statistics; There was a bit of flapdoodle recently when the Treasury and Statistics New Zealand owned up to having made an error in some household income statistics, which had a knock-on effect on…
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Extracted from the full report published in The New Zealand Journal of Sociology, Vol 28, Issue 3, 2013, pages 9-66. (http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/2013/12/economic-inequality-in-new-zealand-a-users-guide-summary/) Keywords: Distributional Economics; Statistics; Key Messages Section 1: Why is Economic Inequality Important? 1. The section identifies four main issues as to why inequality may be important – equity –…
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Published in The New Zealand Journal of Sociology , Vol 28, Issue 3, 2013, pages 9-66. http://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE18625730&dps_custom_att_1=ilsdb Keywords: Distributional Economics; Statistics; “When inequality is the common law of a society, the greatest inequalities do not call attention to themselves.” Democracy in America, A. de Tocqueville. B. Perry (2103) Household Incomes in New Zealand: Trends…
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Keywords: Distributional Economics; Statistics; Introduction [1] One of the few useful sources of market income information is incomes declared for tax purposes. Even so it has limitations. It is administrative data and so is sensitive to changes in statute and administrative policy. Thus the definition of income is that set by…
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I reviewed “Inequality: a New Zealand Crisis”, Max Rashbrooke (ed) in “The New Zealand Listener” of 10 October, 2013. (http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/2012/11/is-new-zealand-still-fair/). It elicited the following letter and my reply. Keywords: Distributional Economics; Statistics; We welcome Brian Easton’s review of Inequality: A New Zealand Crisis (“Books & Culture, October 19) and his acknowledgement that it…
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This is a commentary of a Treasury document available at http://www.treasury.govt.nz/abouttreasury/higherlivingstandards/hls-ag-risks-jan13.pdf The living standards framework is at: http://www.treasury.govt.nz/abouttreasury/higherlivingstandards I was asked to do this comment in a hurry. Some of the thinking is as superficial as that of a university professor (as we say in the trade). Keywords:…
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Keywords: Distributional Economics; Growth & Innovation; Statistics; I have just realised that we can calculate Amartya Sen’s ‘real income’ measure for New Zealand for a 30 year period, by combining our Statistics New Zealand estimates of national income with the Ministry of Social Development estimates of household gini coefficients. This note describes how this…
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Keywords: Education; Statistics; The PBRF (Performance Based Research Fund) score card has modified university behaviour substantially. This is not a paper about how that internal behaviour has changed. Rather it suggests that the scores may be used in different ways to draw quite different conclusions. Gilling’s law states that the way you…
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Draft for discussion; this version completed 24 May 2103. Keywords: Political Economy & History; Social Policy; Statistics; This note disinters a result I found in the 1970s and subsequently buried in Income Distribution in New Zealand. Years later it may have some relevance to some puzzles I am working on about the changing…
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The confidential details you provide in next month’s census forms will prove valuable. Listener: 2 March , 2013. Keywords: Statistics; On Tuesday, March 5, millions of New Zealanders will fill in census forms on behalf of themselves, their children and their dwellings. They will do so out of a civic duty, although…
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Presentation to a Treasury Workshop on the Long-Term Fiscal Projections; 26 September, 2012. I am writing a history of New Zealand from an economic perspective. The manuscript – 250,000 words and I am only up to the 1970s – includes a number of appendices looking at the data. One is on government spending. The Treasury…
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This is an earlier version of a paper published in New Zealand Population Review, which was a festschrift to D. Ian Pool (Vol 7, 2011 p.178-182) Introduction In the course of writing Not in Narrow Seas: New Zealand History from an Economic Perspective I was found myself not only reporting demographic history, but using demography…
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Listener: 15 September, 2012. Austrian philosopher Ivan Illich coined the expression “iatrogenic medicine” to describe illness generated by the actions of physicians. An example is when the doctors prescribe some medicine, with resultant side effects, which are treated by further medication. The cycle repeats until a specialist reviews the patient’s entire record and stops all…
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In the course of an appeal to the Social Security Appeal Authority I was asked to prepare an estimate of the income that the appealing family would require. Here follows my affidavit. The aim has been to keep the text in full, including those necessary for a court document. However there are a few changes…
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