Keywords: Retirement & Savings; Social Policy;
Chapter for the New Zealand Government and Politics 2ed, edited by Raymond Miller (OUP). First Edition Chapter
Keywords: Globalisation & Trade; Governance; Political Economy & History;
In recent years there has been increasing concern that the phenomenon of supranational economic integration, popularly known as economic ‘globalisation’, is undermining the sovereignty of the nation state. In New Zealand, this has been symbolised by international agencies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and World Trade Organisation (WTO). This chapter will explore the economic context of the debate.
Listener 25 January, 2003.
Keywords:
History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy; Macroeconomics & Money; Maori;
I would start a beginning course in economics with Economics of the New Zealand Maori by Raymond Firth, who died last year. Not only is the book a part of our heritage but it confronts students with the classical Maori economy which answered the central economic problems of ‘what, how, for whom, where and when’ in quite different ways from today. Starting with an alternative to the narrow idealised version of the US economy which they are usually taught, would help students realise how special it is. It might even suggest that every economy is particular, and such general economic principles there are, need not result in the policies which slavishly follow from the idealised US one.
Why can’t economists measure wellbeing as material wealth?
Listener 11 January 2003.
Keywords: History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;
While there is considerable national agreement that economic policy should aim to accelerate the growth of sustainable GDP, Gross Domestic Product only measures material output. Its designers never not intended it to assess human welfare. As economists have known for more than fifty years, GDP is not a good measure of wellbeing. While people in cold climates have bigger fuel bills, they are not necessarily better off than where it is warm. People in insecure environments spend more on the police and military, but better to be in a secure community. Where does friendship fit into GDP? Attempts to extend the concept (to include such things as non-market activities and the environment) do not solve the basic problem that material output is not the same thing as happiness.
Of Pigs and People (January 1993)
Development As Freedom: A Great Book by A Great Indian Economist (November 1999)
Value Added: The Shift To A More Socially Responsible Economic Policy Is Also Supported by Public Opnion – With Real Political Implications (March 2000).
For Better Or Worse (August 2000)
Being and Doing (January 2002)
Money Well Spent [...]