The Reserve Bank says its influence is overrated.
Listener 26 February 1994 This is the third of a sequence of four columns written in the early 1990s about monetary policy, which continue to be significant today. They are
The Hole in the Reserve Bank
What the Reserve Bank Believes
Who Controls the Exchange Rate?
The Meaning of Influence
Keywords Macroeconomics & Money
In my last column I remarked that the Reserve Bank sometimes makes confusing and contradictory statements. In this I want to give an example.
Presentation to “Perspectives for Change”, a conference convened by the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand at Ohinemutu Marae, Rotorua, 20-23 February, 1994.
Keywords: Health; Regulation & Taxation; Social Policy
Given the brevity of the time available, this paper simply states a series of propositions about using taxation as a means of regulating alcohol use. The presenter has long been an advocate of an appropriate level of tax on alcohol to limit abuse and to pay the social costs of the abuse. While reaffirming this position, the paper is directed to the thesis that taxation for this purpose is a limited policy instrument, and that other instruments will have to be increasingly used if we want to obtain the socially optimal level of alcohol consumption. This presentation summarizes a series of papers on the economic regulation of licit drugs, which are listed in the appendix. This work draws on the parallel literature on the use and abuse of tobacco, where the similarities and differences are instructive.
Listener 12 February 1994 This is the second of a sequence of four columns written in the early 1990s about monetary policy, which continue to be significant today. They are
The Hole in the Reserve Bank
What the Reserve Bank Believes
Who Controls the Exchange Rate?
The Meaning of Influence
Keywords Macroeconomics & Money
Do the monetary policies of the Reserve Bank (RBNZ) cause unemployment? The RBNZ economists have little doubt that there is some sort of connection. I am not referring to the RBNZ’s public statements, which I find confusing and even contradictory, but to what their economists write. Monetary Policy and the New Zealand Financial System, published in 1992 (after the 1990 Reserve Bank Act), has two separate diagrams in chapters written by different economists which show linkages. A simplified summary accompanies this column.
Evidence to the Waitangi Tribunal. subsequently attached as evidence to the High Court. (February 1994) The additional evidence to the High Court was primarily rebuttal evidence. (August 1994) Extracts from it are appended to this report.
Keywords: Governance; Maori; Statistics;
1. I am a research economist and social statistician, and I work as a consultant.
2. I have been asked by the Maori Congress to assist the Waitangi Tribunal by presenting and reviewing some statistics on various expenditures by the Crown on matters similar to the that of informing and enabling Maori to enrol on the Maori roll.
