Thursday 24 November The Commission’s report on the seminar is here. It includes the my overheads which accompanied the presentation. Introduction I have been commissioned to prepare a report for the New Zealand Productivity Commission’s inquiry into economic resilience. The purpose of the report is threefold: 1. to describe how New Zealand has attempted to…
Continue reading this entry »
Speech for launch at Parliament of Heke Tangata, Māori in Markets and Cities on Tuesday 15 May 2018. The event is sponsored by Te Whānau o Waipareira, the National Urban Māori Authority and Oratia Media at the invitation of the Hon. Willie Jackson, Associate Minister for Māori Development. Kia Ora Koutou Katoa. I begin by…
Continue reading this entry »
Paper to the Fabian Society, 12 October, 2016 While we continue to chew over the carcass of the Fourth Labour Government – the Lange-Douglas one – we pay little attention to the subsequent Fifth Labour Government. Yet the Clark-Cullen one is greatly shaping the current Labour Opposition and the current National Government. It will,…
Continue reading this entry »
WEA Conference, 14 May, 2016, Wellington. The initial invitation suggested I talk about the future economy and its relevance to adult education. I explained that the best advice I ever came across is ‘don’t make predictions, especially about the future’. You get a sense of the difficulties if you go back thirty years ago, say,…
Continue reading this entry »
The OECD says yes; how do we respond? Pundit: 15 December, 2014. Keywords: Distributional Economics; Growth & Innovation; A recently released OECD report concludes that economic inequality hurts economic growth, and has particularly done so for New Zealand. Some of our responses were plain bizarre. Either the non-economic commentators had not understood the issue or…
Continue reading this entry »
How New Zealand businesses succeed internationally. Pundit: 30 November, 2014. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Literature and Culture; One of life’s pleasure is sitting with a child on one’s lap reading a book to them: attractive – sometimes mysterious – illustrations, humorous – even mischievous – plots, rhythmic sentences and just enough eccentric…
Continue reading this entry »
We should focus more on introducing and adapting the world’s innovations using a skilled workforce. Pundit: 17 November, 2014 Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Labour Studies; Our so called ‘innovation policy’, which is at the heart of the government’s growth strategy – insofar as it has one – seems to be fundamentally flawed….
Continue reading this entry »
Published in Stuff, 2 September, 2014. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; In the two years after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and Poland (among others) detached itself from the Russian Empire, the Polish economy contracted by about a sixth. They call it ‘shock therapy’ but the policies which were pursued – privatisation, market…
Continue reading this entry »
In the economic contest between communist China. and democratic India what matters is people. Listener: 9 August, 2014 Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Political Economy & History; The debate in the 1950s was whether the Chinese economy would do better than the Indian one. Both countries had become independent in the late 1940s,…
Continue reading this entry »
Oh for leaders who cushion us from economic blows and remain progressive. Listener: 12 December, 2013 Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Political Economy & History; We might pretend economic management is concerned with accelerating growth, but it is mainly about dealing with the myriad shocks that pepper the economy. The market can…
Continue reading this entry »
Policymaking is too often based on what someone thinks is a good idea. Listener: 5 December, 2013 Keywords: Governance; Growth & Innovation; The Prime Minister’s chief science adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman, has called for the greater use of evidence-based policy formation. It arises out of his medical background, where there has been…
Continue reading this entry »
CLEANING UP CORRUPTION Becoming a democratic country is not as simple as just holding free elections. Listener: 5 September, 2013. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Political Economy & History; Indonesians think of their country as a democracy following the introduction of relatively fair and free elections after the collapse of the Suharto dictatorship…
Continue reading this entry »
We must remember the lesson of the 1960s and ensure the diversity of our exports and markets. Listener: 22 August, 2013. Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; Political Economy & History; We learnt from the Great Depression of the 1930s that New Zealand was over-dependent on a few exports – wool,…
Continue reading this entry »
A note prepared for discussion in September 2012. Keywords: Business & Finance; Distributional Economics; Globalisation & Trade; Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money; What is the Purpose of the Economy? * The purpose of the New Zealand economy is to maintain and increase the wellbeing of all New Zealanders. It is neither the…
Continue reading this entry »
Listener: 26 April, 2012. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money; New Zealand has had two great economic booms – during the Liberal era from about 1895, and from about 1935 while the first Labour Government was in power. In each case, per capita GDP doubled in about a decade; each followed a depression (since…
Continue reading this entry »
Listener: 18 February, 2012. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Last century when we had ministers of regional development, the policy seemed to be to have greater economic growth in the regions than in the country overall. But these days, a greater emphasis goes on concentrating economic activity in Auckland. This change reflects the realisation that viable…
Continue reading this entry »
Paper to the Australia and Pacific Economic and Business History Conference, 16-18 February, Canberra. Was broadly similar to a July, 2011 paper. http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1515. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History;
Listener: 3 September, 2011. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Does New Zealand deserve the Rugby World Cup? No, I am not concerned about who wins it; I hope the best team wins, and you know who that is. But do we deserve to be hosts? Compare our feeble efforts with other big tournaments whose hosts deliberately…
Continue reading this entry »
Paper to Treasury Seminar: 26 July, 2011. Keywords: Growth & Innovation; Macroeconomics & Money; Political Economy & History; Introduction I am writing a history of New Zealand from an economic perspective. Thankyou for the opportunity to present some of its material; it may have a contemporary relevance. I want particularly to thank John Whitehead, who…
Continue reading this entry »
Keywords: Growth & Innovation; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Political Economy & History; The Asia New Zealand Foundation kindly made a grant to enable me to visit India. Here are the columns I wrote: A CLASH OF TITANS (22 January, 2011) http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1416 GOD’S OTHER COUNTRY (19 February, 2011) http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/?p=1435 INDIA’S UNMET DOMESTIC DEVELOPMENT NEEDS…
Continue reading this entry »