The Dismal Science

Featured image: Five dollar prize

Five dollar prize

Eric Crampton • Oct 03, 2018

I’ve been absolutely loving Tyler Mahan Coe’s podcast series on the history of country music and the country music business. Every story is fascinating. A lot of the stories aren’t good for the kids. But I played the one about the Louvin Brothers (nee Loudermilk) for the kids. I paused it after this bit too see if they could … Read More

Featured image: Carbon emissions and the Taranaki ban

Carbon emissions and the Taranaki ban

Eric Crampton • Sep 28, 2018

MBIE’s advice on Labour’s ban on Taranaki oil and gas exploration suggested that global emissions could go up. Could that happen? It depends on what you think’s going on in the rest of the world. Suppose that the whole world were under a binding emissions cap under a global cap and trade regime. If New Zealand produced less natural … Read More

Featured image: As expected

As expected

Donal Curtin • Sep 27, 2018

The NZME/Fairfax Court of Appeal judgement is out and contained few surprises. The Court had been widely anticipated to rebuff the appeal against the Commerce Commission’s refusal to authorise the proposed merger of NZME (the Herald, radio stations, and a herd of other North Island media businesses) and Fairfax (DomPost, Press, S-ST, herd of other media things nationwide). So … Read More

Featured image: We take the plunge…

We take the plunge…

Donal Curtin • Sep 26, 2018

…and in the interests of scientific inquiry our household has a go at changing electricity retailers. Time, in short, to stop being the competition equivalent of an unmarried marriage counsellor, and actually use the tools available to increase competition in electricity retailing. We haven’t been averse to switching in the past, but I’d got disillusioned by the first wave of … Read More

Featured image: Confidence in the Vice Chancellor

Confidence in the Vice Chancellor

Eric Crampton • Sep 19, 2018

In a prior life, I was on Academic Board at the University of Canterbury as Economics Department representative. The meetings were usually tedious. Much of the point seemed to be to provide a forum for people to air their grievances so they could feel they were listened to, but without consequence. There’d usually be somebody who’d make a five-minute speech … Read More

Featured image: Recycled rubbish

Recycled rubbish

Michael Reddell • Sep 15, 2018

That’s the title of my former colleague Ian Harrison’s response to the government’s consultative document on getting rid of (some types of) plastic bags.  The consultation itself closed yesterday, but nobody supposes the consultation itself was remotely serious –  the irrational ban is going to happen anyway.  Having dug fairly deeply into the material used to support/underpin the consultative … Read More

Featured image: Not-so-sweet advice

Not-so-sweet advice

Eric Crampton • Sep 14, 2018

Imagine that you were the Chief Science Adviser for a Ministry. You need to produce a short briefing note to the new government for some issue in your Ministry’s remit. Your Ministry had, just a couple weeks earlier, released a comprehensive report on the topic that your Ministry had commissioned from a top economics consultancy. Your Ministry had had the … Read More

Featured image: Regulation done right

Regulation done right

Donal Curtin • Sep 06, 2018

From overseas I’ve caught up with the news that the Telecommunications Commissioner Dr Stephen Gale has decided not to deregulate the market for national mobile roaming. The current regime (summarising a bit) is that the incumbent mobile network operators (Spark, Vodafone, 2degrees) have to provide wholesale network access to any serious new entrants. That way the new entrant is … Read More

Featured image: Vacancy rates

Vacancy rates

Eric Crampton • Sep 03, 2018

Sitting at my desk in Wellington, it’s easier for me to tell you the housing rental market vacancy rate for any city in Canada than it is for me to tell you the rental market vacancy rate anywhere in New Zealand, Wellington included. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC – a government outfit) has stats on the vacancy … Read More

Featured image: Non-serious students, one serious problem

Non-serious students, one serious problem

Eric Crampton • Aug 29, 2018

John Gerritsen at RNZ picks up last week’s NBER study on how the PISA rankings would change were students to take the test more seriously and rounds up some local reaction: Michael Johnston, senior lecturer in education at Victoria University, said the study’s assumption that New Zealand students were not trying hard enough if they left questions unanswered … Read More