“Spirited Conversations”, Nelson, April 27.
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade;
Introduction
The Royal Society of New Zealand has awarded me a grant from the Marsden Fund to study globalisation. What I am going to do this evening is set down the framework economists use when we study that globalisation.
Finance Minister Michael Cullen faces the political reality of election year
Listener: 23 April, 2005.
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;
How to slow an economy that is pressing on its capacity to produce? A couple of decades ago, the government might have imposed a credit squeeze, reducing private investment. Additionally, it would have tightened restrictions of consumer credit (especially hire-purchase), raised taxes to reduce household consumption (but not in election year), reduced government current spending and told government agencies to defer their investment plans. Today, it appears to rely only on the Reserve Bank to squeeze credit by raising interest rates.
Paper to the Wellington Health Economist’s Group, 21 April 2005.
Keywords: Health;
Introduction
This paper demonstrates that there can be substantial health benefits – as valued by economists – from reducing waiting times, far more than from the single earlier treatment necessary to get the reduction underway. For while the individual benefits from the treatment, all those that follow her or him also benefit from earlier treatment even though no additional resources are necessary.
In some tertiary education it has been “Never mind the quality: feel the width”.
Listener: 9 April, 2005.
Keywords: Education;
Third party funding occurs when neither producer nor consumer pays for the economic trans-action, but some outsider does. This opens up the possibility that the two beneficiaries from the funding will thwart the funder’s purposes. So funders typically impose additional rules, to ensure their money is spent as intended.