Monthly Archives: August 2000

The Sustainability Of Student Loans

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Paper for the ‘Student Loans Summit’, 25 August, 2000

Keywords Education

It is important when thinking about Student Loans, or indeed about any other facit of government policy, that the policy which drives it is seen as a part of a total policy framework evolved out of a taskforce which was established in 1984 to completely review government policy. I imagine at the time that some of the outcomes of the taskforce thinking were expected like privatisation and corporatisation. But the comprehensive framework of commercialisation may well not have been, nor may they have expected the proposals to, say, reform student access to tertiary education. That was to come later. By that time the rule of making government activities run as though they were business ones, was no totally accepted in the policy community, and it was natural to do that as much as the public would allow. What that means is that the policy of student loans have to be seen in this wider context, and to challenge them involves a different policy framework.

The Model Economist: Bryan Philpott (1921-2000)

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Listener 19 August, 2000

Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Macroeconomics & Money;

Just before he was struck down by his final illness, 79-year-old Bryan Philpott completed the last of his many research papers. It reviewed the work he done at the Research Project on Economic Planning (RPEP) over its thirty years, first as McCarthy Professor of Economics at Victoria University of Wellington, and then in retirement. The paper reflects an impressive research achievement, but also includes and was intended to include, so he told me a powerful rebuke to the economic policy of the last 15 years. To explain how, requires some preliminaries.

For Better or Worse

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Listener 5 August, 2000

Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;

At the heart of much economic analysis is the belief is that it is better to have more material goods and services. The assumption underlies the economic policy objective that we should aim for higher real incomes and production because that means we can (sustainably) consume more and have more material possessions. Economists – or at least the good ones – have been aware of the importance of the assumption, but until recently they were not able to evaluate it in any scientific way. Now that we can, ‘more means better’ proves to be only marginally correct, not nearly as important as economic policy assumes.