This is an exploratory study and may be of little value. By way of background, I observed a Kings Fund study which ranked the British health system with a group of other affluent OECD countries. I thought it would be interesting to do this for New Zealand. I got deviated when I found an…
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Introduction: The focus of this paper is on macroeconomic management and not on the entirety of economic policy. There are many issues which macroeconomic interventions cannot address. To use macroeconomic instruments, rather than the relevant targeted instrument, will blunt the effectiveness of macropolicy interventions. Reflecting, this paper is really a critique of the current primary…
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I have been gripped by the World Oddometer’s daily reports tracking the covid statistics. In a way it was a rejection of Stalin’s ‘one death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic’; I have watched with agony the paths of various countries. But this statistician knew that the data reflected reported deaths from covid,…
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Summary:. Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas. Some methane comes from atmospheric carbon-dioxide which is fixed in grass, eaten by livestock, belched into the atmosphere and eventually returns to atmospheric carbon-dioxide. Before it breaks down, the methane molecules form a ‘cloud’ in the atmosphere which adds to global warming at a much higher rate per…
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I was commissioned by the ‘Dominion Post’ to write an opinion piece as part of their review of the anniversary of the 2018 Census. This is a slightly revised version of what they published. The main article is ‘365 days and still counting: Census results still nowhere to be seen’. An earlier ‘Pundit’ column is ‘The…
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Presentation to the Wellington Statistics Group, 10 December, 2018 This year’s Child Poverty Reduction Act (CPRA) marks a major innovation in social policy. Politicians – here and overseas – have promised to eliminate child poverty at some date in the future. They never have and by the time the target date is reached the promisers…
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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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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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