Eric Crampton • Feb 17, 2021 •
I’m a bit of an ETS-absolutist. Or at least a carbon-pricing absolutist, in a place the size of NZ. I think the Weitzman reasons for preferring a carbon tax to an ETS are second-order relative to political economy considerations, and any weight at all put on switching costs makes it ludicrous to want NZ to flip from an ETS to … Read More
Dave Heatley • Dec 11, 2020 •
Is the Covid pandemic and our collective responses to it best framed as health vs. the economy? That is, are countries forced to make a horrible trade-off between: minimising Covid infection rates at high economic cost; and accepting higher Covid infection rates, this being the cost of maintaining economic activity? This framing underlies many of the popular narratives comparing the … Read More
Eric Crampton • Aug 11, 2020 •
So our Joel Hernandez has completed some more work on what’s all going on in New Zealand’s school system and an Auckland Uni education prof is mad about it. Oh well. Joel’s long term project has been to look at differences in outcomes across students and schools, using the administrative data held in the StatsNZ data lab … Read More
Robert Hickson • Sep 19, 2019 •
There is much to be despondent about looking ahead to the consequences of a changing climate. But adopting Jonathan Franzen’s defeatism isn’t the best response. Reducing adverse impacts of climate change isn’t as simple as regulating automotive emissions, banning a pesticide of refrigerant, or changing to LED lights. But nor is it as … Read More
Robert Hickson • Mar 22, 2019 •
Two centuries ago there was an allegory doing the rounds of England. A “New Zealander” – meaning a Māori – at some latter date sat drawing the ruins of London. A sign that all great cities and civilisations eventually diminish and others take their place. Detail from Gustave Doré. “The New Zealander” in London: … Read More
Michael Reddell • Aug 06, 2018 •
James Shaw, co-leader of the Green Party and Minister for Climate Change (surely Minister against it?), tells us he is working his way through 15000 submissions on the recent climate change consultation document. I’ve done a couple of posts here on the document, and on the NZIER modelling used extensively in it, and I’ve chided both the Minister … Read More
Guest Author • May 15, 2018 •
By Matt Boyd and Nick Wilson We have just published an article (free online) on existential risks – with an NZ orientated perspective.1 In this blog we discuss some of the issues that NZ society could start to discuss. Do we value future people? Do we care about the wellbeing of people who don’t yet exist? Do we care … Read More
Eric Crampton • May 03, 2018 •
We’ve known about the problems of publication bias at least since 1992. If it’s easier to get statistically significant results published than insignificant results, then there are whole literatures that become untrustworthy. Andrea Menclova at Canterbury is doing something about it. This has been a while in the making – we were talking about it when I was still at … Read More
Donal Curtin • Apr 25, 2018 •
You want to buy a widget. Bugsy’s has the model you want, it’s $6. Malone’s also sells it, for $5. You may not know Malone’s got it cheaper, so you end up paying a dollar too much at Bugsy’s. But suppose Bugsy’s and Malone’s are required by the Prevent-A-Widget-Ripoff Authority to post their prices online? With a moment’s search you … Read More
Michael Reddell • Apr 19, 2018 •
Lots of people, even abroad, look at New Zealand’s economy. For example, there are ratings agencies selling a commercial product to clients, and there are investment funds putting their own and clients’ money at risk. And then there are the government agencies; notably the IMF and the OECD. Every year or so, a small team of IMF … Read More