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NEW INSIGHTS INTO THE EXPERIENCED GENERATIONS

Speech to Launch the Report “New Insights into the Experienced Generation” for the Hope Foundation, 30 July 2009
 
Keywords: Social Policy; Statistics;
 
This report represents a further step to our understanding of ourselves as a society. Only a few decades ago we treated all New Zealanders as the same, with the implicit assumption that they [...]

30th July 2009 | Comments Closed

LOOK BACK IN REGRET

How our fondness for instant gratification challenges conventional economic thinking.
 
Listener: 5 May, 2007.
 
Keywords: Health; Social Policy;
 
You go into the bar for a couple of drinks. The following morning you can’t remember how many you had, but your head and throat wish you had not.
 
What intrigues an economist is that while with hindsight you regret the [...]

5th May 2007 | Comments Closed

CHANGING EXPECTATIONS

MMP has reduced policy extremism, but more consensus politics are needed to solve our big economic questions
 
Listener: 21 October, 2006.
 
Keywords: Environment & Resources; Governance; 

The rise in personality politics is an unexpected consequence of MMP. Certainly there are other factors, including a change in the US political debate (recall the attacks on the Clintons) and the [...]

21st October 2006 | Comments Closed

COMING OF AGE: Can the country afford for us to retire?

Listener: 12 August, 2006.
 
Keywords: Social Policy;
 
It may seem absurd to ask the Treasury to project the government’s fiscal position, that is, its tax and spending, out to 2050, but that is what Parliament requires of them in its 2004 Public Finance Act. Given rising longevity, some of the study’s authors may be around in 2050 [...]

12th August 2006 | Comments Closed

TAXING SPENDING: Should we think about introducing a progressive expenditure tax

Listener: 7 May, 2005.

Keywords: Regulation & Taxation;

I have long been intrigued by Nicholas Kaldor’s proposal for an Expenditure Tax. Instead of taxing income: what one puts into the economy, why not tax expenditure: what one takes out? Should not those on the same income who can live more frugally pay less tax than the profligate? (Can I hear you saying, “Easton, you are a puritan”? I plead guilty, but am also attracted for environmental reasons.) As Kaldor points out, advocates for such a tax have included Thomas Hobbes, John Stuart Mill, Alfred Marshall and Irving Fisher, which shows that supporting it is not a matter of being politically left or right.

7th May 2005 | Comments Closed

LOCK INTO SAVINGS

The retirement debate depends on a disagreement between economists.

Listener : 23 October, 2004.

Keywords: Social Policy;

About 30 years ago economics sharpened its theory of behaviour with the assumption that everyone took economic decisions that gave them the best outcome. We might call this the “neoclassical paradigm”. It simplifies analysis enormously, and was used in policy extensively in the 1980s and 90s. In practice, the paradigm recognises that individuals don’t actually maximise, but it assumes that people are always taking actions that move them closer to the optimum, so the assumption of best outcomes is near enough to be true.

23rd October 2004 | Comments Closed

OLD MONEY: If life expectancy is rising, should the age for the pension rise, to

Listener 15 November, 2003.

Keywords: Social Policy;

In 1998 our life expectancy at 65 was 17.6 years, so over half those who go onto New Zealand superannuation pass their 80th birthday. In 1898, when the much less generous Old Age Pension was introduced, life expectancy at the 65-year-old age of eligibility was 13 years. Over the century the average life expectancy at 65 has increased by almost five years. Can the state pension be as relatively generous as longevity increases?

15th November 2003 | Comments Closed

RETIREMENT & SUPERANNUATION (INDEX)

Keywords: Retirement & Savings; Social Policy;

31st January 2003 | Comments Closed

THE POLITICS OF RETIREMENT INCOMES

Chapter 5 of The Whimpering of the State: Politics After MMP. Does not contain diagrams or endtnotes.

Keywords: Social Policy;

It was not macroeconomic policy that proved politically disastrous for Winston Peters. NZF’s economic policy unravelled over retirement policy.

1st July 1999 | Comments Closed

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 12: PROVISION FOR RETIREMENT

This is an appendix to a chapter of Globalisation and Welfare State The chapter is not written.

Keywords: Social Policy;

Since the 1970s there have been various proposals for state involvement in retirement provision. Each accepts there is a role for voluntary private provision (commonly called the third tier). The differences occur over the treatment of the first and second tiers.

11th December 1997 | Comments Closed
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