From stockyards to communications, natural monopolies need to be watched closely.
Listener: 25 November, 1995.
Keywords: Regulation & Taxation;
A decade ago the Australian stock and station agents, Elders Pastoral, decided to enter New Zealand. A key activity is selling livestock, commonly done through stockyards. It is expensive to build one’s own yards, and most yards are under-utilized, with just one per region. So the firm wrote to each stockyard in the country, and asked if they might lease it for their sales on commercial terms.
New Zealand Sociology November 1995, Vol 10, No 2, pp.182-214.
Note This version has yet to have the graphs added.
Keywords: Distributional Economics; Statistics;
Introduction1
After around two decades of modern poverty research in New Zealand which has focused on poverty at a point in time, it is now possible to provide estimates of the changing numbers of poor over time.
Twenty four Principles for Salvaging the Health System.
Listener: 11 November, 1995.
Keywords: Health;
It is the practice of this column to focus on explaining underlying economic analysis, rather than policy prescription. Typically, when I have to cut for length a column I have written, it is the policy that goes first. However we have got into such a muddle over our health system that this column breaks its practice and simply sets down a set of policy principles. (There are a number of areas which I have not discussed, because they are non-controversial – like that the biggest single health gain would be if we could abandon smoking.)
Keywords Business & Finance;
This is the draft of an article on the Stock and Agent Industry. My interest in the industry arose from a minor involvement as an expert witness in the recent commercial litigation on the Wrightson/Dalgety merger. But that is not the focus of the study. Rather it is to examine the contemporary industry using some recently developed economic analyses, and look at its past and future.
