Adam Smith, Robbie Burns and Enlightenment
Listener 29 December, 2001.
Keywords History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy
Adam Smith (1723-1790) was the first great economist. The political right promenades him as one of their own, but in a recent book Economic Sentiments, Emma Rothschild argues that he was originally a radical. However, shortly after his death censorious decisions in the courts led his followers to reinterpret him in a more conservative manner. (Rothschild dedicates the book to her husband, Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen, who is obviously influenced by her work.)
The following is an attempt to write down what seems to be known about Sutch and the saving of UNICEF. This was a note which backgrounds pages 133-135 of The Nationbuilders. It was finalised 22 December 2001.
Keywords: Political Economy & History;
Sutch at the United Nations
In the mid 1950s, Sutch wrote
“I was New Zealand delegate for three years on the Economic and Social Commission of the United Nationsand was Chairman of the United Nations Social Commission in 1948/49, Chairman of the Board of Inquiry into the United Nations Staff conditions in 1949, Chairman of the Executive Board of the United Nation’s Children’s Fund in 1950 and Chairman of the UNICEF Administration and Budgeting Committee and Committee on Fund raising from 1948 to 1950.”
Listener 15 December, 2001.
Keywords History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy
Prizes for economic achievement are so idiosyncratically given out, that occasionally they get awarded for excellence. This year’s Nobel Prize went to economics to George Akerloff, Michael Spence and Joe Stiglitz, for their investigations into what happens when there is asymmetry of information in market transactions, and the buyers and sellers know different things about the purchased. Their studies show markets do not always function smoothly. For instance, the seller of a second hand car is likely to know more about its defects than buyers, who are therefore suspicious that anything being offered. (Why sell a good car?) Akerloff’s classic 1970 paper ‘The Market for Lemons’ showed how the outcome could be less than efficient. Noone will trade peaches, because buyers suspect them of being lemons.
Revised Paper for the 2001 Conference of the New Zealand Historical Association, December [1]
Keywords: Governance; Political Economy & History
My just published The Nationbuilders is an account of the creation and implementation of the idea of using the state to develop a nation, especially the national economy, but also in a number of other areas such as cultural policy and the environment. The story is told through a series of biographies of New Zealanders who were closely involved in nationbuilding. While I hope the book is a contribution to New Zealand biography, the book’s structure was the best way I could think of presenting the idea of nationbuilding for a general New Zealand audience. Among the alternative approaches would have been a rather dreary academic account of the origins and development of the idea, which would however have had the merit of being able to draw more directly on parallel developments in other countries. Another approach would have been to tell the story through institutions rather than people. Today’s paper is an example of this approach, for it looks at the central role of the Treasury in nationbuilding period, taking material from the book and presenting it a different way. In doing so it sharpens some of the themes, and allows the relating of the Treasury story to some the issues it faces today, reminding us that an understanding of the past can help understand the future.
Listener 1 December, 2001.
Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money
As the chief economist of the OECD recently explained ‘even without further adverse developments, [I expect] an immediate slump and then global stagnation probably until late next year’. He went on to say he ‘is probably optimistic’. The pessimism arises from the splutterings of the three great motors of the postwar economy.
