Guest Author • Sep 03, 2019 •
Nathan S Consedine, University of Auckland In wealthy societies, we’ve become increasingly picky about what we eat. The “wrong” fruits and vegetables, the “wrong” animal parts, and the “wrong” animals inspire varying degrees of “yuck”. Our repugnance at fruit and vegetables that fail to meet unblemished ideals means up to half of all produce is thrown … Read More
Eric Crampton • Apr 06, 2018 •
Otago’s public health people, perhaps unsurprisingly, didn’t like NZIER’s take on sugar taxes. They’ve blogged on it here, but they seem to have missed a few important points. A Report commissioned by the Ministry of Health, written by NZIER, has recently been getting air-time as an argument against taxing sugary drinks. However, the Report seems to us to be … Read More
Guest Author • Mar 08, 2018 •
Steve Allsop, Curtin University; Eveline Lensvelt, Curtin University, and Tanya Chikritzhs, Curtin University This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. In Australia, almost 6,000 deaths a year can be attributed to alcohol, as well as around 400 hospitalisations a day. While drinking has declined in some … Read More
Eric Crampton • Jun 15, 2016 •
Which of the following sounds more like the real world? In world A, you walk down the grocery aisle. You want to buy some soda. You see that the price of your favourite brand of soda has gone up. You decide not to buy any soda and you consequently drink less soda. In world B, you walk down the same … Read More
Eric Crampton • Dec 18, 2015 •
The latest NZMJ has a couple of pieces on alcohol minimum pricing. The editorial from British Columbia researcher Tim Stockwell lauds minimum pricing’s successes in BC, though I think he there overstates the case – especially where some of his own work in British Columbia makes a hash of things by using regional CPI within B.C. to get differences … Read More
Guest Author • Oct 10, 2013 •
Below is the text of a lecture given by Rick Boven, a director of Stakeholder Strategies and former director of think tank the New Zealand Institute. by Rick Boven Today I’m going to offer some thinking about how the way we think about our environment and the economy affects the outcomes we will experience in the future. I think … Read More
Bill Kaye-Blake • Aug 12, 2013 •
Over the weekend, I ended up at a review of The Invention of Capitalism. The book’s author is Michael Perelmen, an economist in California who has stirred up controversy over the years. Apparently, he doesn’t disappoint in this book. Disclaimer: I have no idea whether Perelmen is right in his history, or should I say ‘right’, as […] … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Mar 25, 2013 •
Yesterday, the 24th of March, was World TB Day which aims to build awareness for tuberculosis, a lung disease which kills about 2 million people around the world each year. That’s 3 people a minute. Why the 24th March? This was the day, in 1882, that Dr Robert Koch* announced he had discovered the bacterium that causes TB, … Read More
Bill Kaye-Blake • Mar 19, 2013 •
Andrew Dickson (othersideofweightloss) was emailing me about fat taxes and I realised I didn’t have a well thought-out opinion on them. Let me start by asking, what are we trying to accomplish? User pays — This is the point of the tax on fat people that Gareth Morgan Investments suggested in 2005: Government could publish a range [...] … Read More