Seamus Hogan • Aug 09, 2013 •
Matt and Paul have both covered the subsidy to Rio Tinto that facilitated a new contract between RT and Meridian Power. There is not a lot to say about the actual policy; Matt's "Urg" pretty much sums it up. But a few points about the politics of this ... Read More
Paul Walker • May 23, 2013 •
This piece from the Adam Smith Institute website should act as a warning to countries wanting to reregulate their energy markets. Stephen Littlechild, Professor emeritus at the University of Birmingham, fellow of Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge and a top regulator from 1983 to 1998, explains how politicians and regulators have, by misunderstanding … Read More
Seamus Hogan • May 07, 2013 •
As I noted last year, the University of Canterbury administration has this year increased the price of an annual parking permit threefold from (roughly) $100 to $300. This raises the price from what was a subsidised rate to something they calculate as being approximately marginal cost. Needless to say, this is something that the Economics department … Read More
Seamus Hogan • May 07, 2013 •
In the comments on my post containing the open-letter to the Labour Party’s two Davids a couple of weeks ago, John Small and I got into a discussion about the morality of a government policy that would wipe value from a private company (in this case, suggested changes to the electricity market that would reduce the profits of … Read More
Seamus Hogan • Apr 22, 2013 •
Dear David and David, I have read with interest the policy document you released yesterday: New Zealand Power, Energising New Zealand. I wonder if you could clarify a few points for me. In the document and the associated speeches, you quote the Wola... Read More
Bill Kaye-Blake • Apr 02, 2013 •
A lot of economic theory is about markets. We then add government in as something that moves the market away from equilibrium. Subsidies, taxes, quotas, regulations, etc. — these are all ways in which government moves the market away from our assumption of what have happened otherwise. We never observe the counterfactual. We end up [...] … Read More
Eric Crampton • Dec 03, 2012 •
Electricity demand is less elastic than I'd thought. ISCR's Competition & Regulation Times reports (pdf) on an experiment run by New Zealand power company Mercury Energy. Four hundred households were randomly assigned to four different t... Read More
Eric Crampton • Nov 14, 2012 •
There's a new 'Green Growth' report out. The Science Media Centre asked me for comment; here's what I gave them, along with a few additional comments below. “There’s much to like in the [Green growth] report. It rightly recommends that New Zealan... Read More
Mr February • Sep 11, 2012 •
Simon Johnson argues that Rio Tinto Alcan NZ (NZ Aluminium Smelters Ltd), the owner of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is “Godfathering” the smelter, its workforce, the Southland economy, the NZ electricity market, Meridan Energy and the poor critically endangered slow-breeding kakapo, as well as “Godfathering” the NZ emissions trading scheme to get excessive free [...] … Read More
Aimee Whitcroft • Sep 29, 2011 •
I generally stay out of the whole Creationist argument (well, on my blog at least). Let me be clear – I am an atheist. Very staunchly so. But other people write far better and far more cogently than I on the clash between creationism and science, and I’m quite happy to let them do so. Read More