Listener 24 November, 1979, republished in The Listener Bedside Book, No 3 (1999) p.182-183.
Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Maori;
Raymond Firth’s study of the pre-European Maori economy, The Economics of the New Zealand Maori, is half a century old. In 1929 Firth, a young New Zealand economics graduate, decided to pursue economic anthropology, and undertook a doctorate, supervised by Bronislaw Malinkowski, at the University of London. Today, at 80, Firth is one of the grand old men of anthropology , with honorary doctorates from seven prestigious universities.
Listener 12 May, 1979
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money;
The terms of trade measure the value of our exports. In the 1950s and the early 1960s they were high, which meant that we were able to buy a lot of imports for each tonne of wool, meat or butterfat. It may well be that for those 18 years we experienced the longest period of high terms of trade in our entire history .As a result New Zealand had one of its most sustained periods of prosperity. Not the least of the achievements were moderate economic growth, low inflation and negligible unemployment.
Listener 17 March, 1979, republished in The Listener Bedside Book 2 (1998) p.209-11.
Keywords: Social Policy;
Sentiment sings that one’s mother is worth more than all the world, but we don’t always follow our singing. Anyway, for social policy purposes we need a more hard-headed assessment of the worth of mothers.
