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Speeches and presentations
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Keynote address to the Massey University College of Business Graduation Ceremony
12 May 2009, Peter Shirtcliffe
Advice regarding the skills and attributes necessary to achieve in business.
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Moral Markets
1 October 2008, Roger Kerr
In the first place, genuinely free and open markets enable individuals to promote their own, self-chosen goals (which do not have to be selfish) as opposed to being exploited in order to promote other people's goals. So markets promote liberty, autonomy, personal responsibility and self-determination.
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The Size of Nations
2 February 2005, Roger Kerr
Roger Kerr's speech to the Papakura District Council Business Breakfast in Papakura, Auckland
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Reducing Barriers to Investment in Infrastructure
30 November 2004, Roger Kerr
Roger Kerr's speech to the Conferenz Instructure Conference in Auckland on 30 November 2004.
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Maori and Business
28 October 2004, Roger Kerr
Roger Kerr's speech to Te Awe: Wellington Maori Business Network in Wellington today.
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The Company as a Business Institution
20 October 2004, Roger Kerr
Speech delivered by Roger Kerr to the Electra Business Breakfast Forum in Levin today.
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The Wisdom of Crowds
2 October 2004, Roger Kerr
Speech delivered by Roger Kerr, executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable, to an audience in Christchurch at 11.00am on Saturday October 2, 2004.
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The Fiscal Responsibility Act: A Stocktake
23 September 2004, Roger Kerr
Roger Kerr's paper to the Conferenz 8th Annual Public Sector Finance Forum in Wellington today.
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Building Prosperity: Opportunities and Threats
13 September 2004, Roger Kerr
Roger Kerr's speech to the Meat Industry Association 2004 Annual Conference in Christchurch.
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Business, Profits and Economic Progress
13 August 2004, Roger Kerr
Speech given to the Insurance Brokers Association in Rotorua
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Imagine There's No Government
15 June 2004, Rob McLeod
I've called this talk 'Imagine there's no government', but I'm not about to speak in favour of anarchy. Rather, I want to outline what I see as the proper process for reaching decisions about what the role of the government should be in any field of public policy.
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Making Sense of Corporate Citizenship
21 April 2004, Roger Kerr
Roger Kerr's speech to the Brightstar CFO Summit in Auckland. Making sense of debates about corporate citizenship or the social
responsibilities of business can be like trying to nail jelly.
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Is Super Really So Hard?
6 April 2004, Roger Kerr
Speech to the 5th Annual Superfunds Summit 2004 in Wellington. Many of our politicians act as though retirement income policy is the 'third
rail' of New Zealand politics: touch it and you're dead. Arguably, however,
the trauma is self-induced.
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Does Policy Matter?
17 July 2003, Roger Kerr
Economic growth matters for people because it brings with it things like higher incomes, wider choices, more leisure and better environmental quality. Economic growth, driven by increases in productivity, is the only long-run source of improvements in average living standards.
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Reflections on Corporate Governance
24 June 2003, Rob McLeod
The Business
Roundtable welcomed the establishment of the New Zealand Shareholders Association
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Time For An Economic Debate
10 February 2003, Rob McLeod
"Towards the end of last year the New Zealand Herald ran a survey of opinion among 120 top chief executives and company chairmen. One of the questions asked was: "Did New Zealand have a growth strategy to sustain business success?" In the Herald's words:
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Trust, Markets and Governance
14 September 2002, Roger Kerr
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Beyond the Sound and Fury: Government Policy, Corporate Governance and Economic Performance
27 March 2001, Roger Kerr
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Profits or People: A Bogus Dilemma
15 December 2000, Roger Kerr
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Cooperatives Versus Corporates
9 November 1999, Roger Kerr
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Politics, Markets and Voluntary Action: Different Mechanisms, Different Roles
6 August 1999, Roger Kerr
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The Changing Face of Business
18 February 1999, Roger Kerr
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Business Ethics and the Market Economy
15 October 1998, Roger Kerr
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Business in New Zealand: As It Was, Is, and Could Be
24 July 1998, Douglas Myers
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Business as a Vocation
20 May 1998, Roger Kerr
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Good Governance: A Case for Paternalism or Personal Responsibility?
17 February 1998, Peter Shirtcliffe
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Reflections on the Winebox
21 November 1997, Douglas Myers
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The Multinational Company: Master or Servant?
5 March 1997, Roger Kerr
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The Meaning of Corporate Social Responsibility
3 December 1996, Roger Kerr
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Businesses Not Governments Create Wealth
10 October 1996, Jim Law
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Business and Politics: Myth and Reality
2 August 1996, Roger Kerr
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Celebrating Creativity: Engineering in a Market Economy
10 February 1996, Roger Kerr
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Perceptions of Business
31 October 1995, Roger Kerr
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The Power of Consumers
11 October 1995, Gil Simpson
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Business Tax, Business Law and Business Performance
30 March 1993, Douglas Myers
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Business and Biculturalism
18 March 1993, Roger Kerr
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The Role of Business in Society
12 October 1992, Roger Kerr
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Outlook for the Corporate Environment: A Business Perspective
29 November 1991, Roger Kerr
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Efficiency and Accountability in the Private Sector
17 April 1991, Lindsay Fergusson
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Choosing Capitalism: Problems and Prospects
28 September 1990, Sir Ronald Trotter
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Books and reports
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Private and Political Markets Both Fail: A Cautionary Tale About
Government Intervention
17 December 2004, David Friedman
One problem in any technical field is that some technical terms sound like
ordinary language, and people outside the field, familiar with their ordinary
meaning, mistakenly assume they understand them. Consider all the people
who think they really understand the theory of relativity - except for the details.
"Everything is relative. That makes sense." The term 'market failure' raises the same
problem because it sounds as though it means the failure of markets. Market failure is a
real phenomenon, a real problem in the organisation of human societies, but it has
nothing in particular to do with markets - or at least, it has no more to do with markets
than it has to do with governments, battles, families and much else.
My purpose is to explain what market failure means, why its existence is commonly
employed as an argument for government regulation of markets, and finally why, while
it is an argument against free markets, it is a stronger argument against the alternatives.
As we will see, the problem described by 'market failure' occurs both in private markets
and in the political and regulatory systems that are the usual alternatives to the private
market, but is very much more common in the latter.
NZ $12.50
incl GST
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In Defence of the
Corporation
17 December 2004, Richard A Epstein
In this modern age of global commerce, it seems odd that I have been asked
to address the topic 'In defence of the corporation'. Even the most ardent
critic of the corporation would not take the position that the corporate form
should be dismissed as an ill-conceived venture of modernity so that it would
be for the better to be rid of it and return to being a nation of artisans. As a
first approximation, the success of the corporation can be measured by the
extent of the assets that are controlled through that form of business entity.
Here, and everywhere else in the world, the corporation has been enormously
successful in attracting and retaining capital investment. The survival of the
fittest in economic affairs is not a test to be lightly ignored.
How did this come about? One answer lies in the expansion of the
number of enterprises that are entitled to assume the corporate form. The
corporation is, as a legal entity, a business that only the state can create.
Originally, when corporations were specially chartered institutions, the state
conferred corporate status only on select individuals. It was necessary to
appeal to the Crown or a branch of the state to obtain a charter. One of the
great liberalisations of the nineteenth century was that anybody who could
file the appropriate papers could get the benefits of the corporate form as a
matter of right. What started as an exercise of political intrigue became a
routine ministerial act. This process of democratisation tended to eliminate
many of the monopoly elements associated with using the corporate form,
because all businesses could then get the key advantages of limited liability
and easily alienable interests. The decline of the special charter was a
comprehensive legal reform that has produced enormous benefits.
NZ $12.50
incl GST
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Corporate Social Responsiblity
17 December 2004, Martin Wolf
Nobody would wish to defend corporate irresponsibility or suggest that
businesses should behave antisocially. It is little wonder therefore that
corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a popular notion. To attack it is
like assailing motherhood. Yet the idea is not merely problematic but, in some
respects, dangerous.
Hostility to markets is sour old wine. What changes are the bottles into which it is put.
The collapse of communism destroyed the illusion that abolition of private property
would create a paradise. However, this failure barely touched the enemies of the market.
What it has changed is their means. Today's aim is not to eliminate private business but
to transform the way it behaves. This, argued David Henderson, former chief economist
of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, in a thoughtprovoking
study for the New Zealand Business Roundtable and the London-based
Institute of Economic Affairs, lies behind the vogue for corporate social responsibility.
This increasingly accepted idea represents a response to critics, many in activist groups,
who are "... with few exceptions ... hostile to, or highly critical of, multinational enterprises,
capitalism, freedom of cross-border trade and capital flows and the idea of a market
economy. One might expect, and indeed hope, that the business community would
effectively contest such anti-business views. But ... the emphasis is on concessions and
accommodation".
Mr Henderson argues that the idea of corporate social responsibility is today more than
a merely defensive one. It is positive and broadly focused, amounting to a transformation
of the objectives of the company and so of the market system. It is not enough, in this
view, for companies to pursue profits within the constraints of law and the principles
of honest dealing. Companies are seen as having a leading role as agents of social,
environmental and economic progress. Business should enthusiastically embrace and
adopt the notion of 'corporate citizenship'.
NZ $12.50
incl GST
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The Role of Business in the Modern World: Progress, Pressures, and Prospects for the Market Economy
30 August 2004, David Henderson
Preview
The twin related subjects of this book are, first, the role and
conduct of business enterprises, and second, the status and prospects of capitalism and the market economy, in the world
of today.
It is now widely held that a new era has just dawned, in which businesses need to adopt a new conception of their mission, purposes and conduct, by endorsing and putting into effect the doctrine of 'Corporate Social Responsibility' (CSR). They
are urged to embrace 'corporate citizenship', and to conduct
themselves, in conjunction with an array of 'stakeholders',
so as to further the cause of 'sustainable development'
by pursuing on their own account a range of social and
environmental goals.
I have already presented a critique of CSR in Misguided
Virtue: False Notions of Corporate Social Responsibility
(2001). Here I treat the issues in a broader way, which
incorporates but goes well beyond that critique. Against
the background of the economic history of the past 50-60
years, I present an alternative conception of the role of business within a market economy. I argue that this primary role is strongly positive, and that there is no good reason either to question or to redefine it in the light
of recent events; I set the emergence of CSR in context,
where it appears as a new addition to already established
collectivist ways of viewing the world; and I discuss more
fully questions of enterprise conduct and motivation. In
conclusion, I outline ways in which the primary role of
business can be reinforced today, chiefly through public
policies designed to extend economic freedom. Finally, I
consider the situation and prospects of capitalism and the
market economy in the light of developments since World
War II.
NZ $34.95
incl GST
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Misguided Virtue: False Notions of Corporate Social Responsibility
1 June 2001, David Henderson
False Notions of Corporate Social Responsibility Issues concerning the social responsibility of businesses are not new, but a new wave of thinking on the subject has now arisen and taken hold. Both in the business world and outside, there is wide and growing support for the present-day doctrine of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This prescribes that companies should embrace the notion of 'corporate citizenship', and redefine their objectives and procedures accordingly. They should work together with a range of 'stakeholders' to further the common goal of 'sustainable development'.
NZ $34.95
incl GST
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A Management Scandal? Interpreting Measures of Shareholder Value
1 May 2001, Bryce Wilkinson
There is no summary available for this publication.
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Anglo-American Capitalism and the Ethics of Business
1 June 1999, Norman Barry
NZ $24.95
incl GST
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Business, Ethics and the Modern Economy: The 1997 Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture
4 November 1997, Norman Barry
NZ $12.50
incl GST
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Submissions
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Joint Complaint to the Regulation Review Committee of Parliament
17 March 2008, Joint Business Roundtable and Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce
Complaint to the Regulation Review Committee concerning the Order in Council of 3 March 2008 amending the Overseas InvestmentRegulations 2005.
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Submission on the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill
20 May 2004, NZBR
We have several specific concerns with the bill that are worth highlighting (see section 4 of the NZBR submission).
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Articles
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The Value of a CEO
3 December 2010, Roger Kerr, Otago Daily Times
Executive pay has been in the news again, with recent reports of the remuneration packages of Sir Ralph Norris, CEO of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and George Frazis, head of Westpac New Zealand. Some claim they are unfair or undeserved.
How should we think about the high pay of some CEOs? Here’s my take. Comments welcome.
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Black or White: Good Cat is Mouse-Catching
22 October 2010, Roger Kerr, Otago Daily Times
There is a Sichuan proverb: “black or white – good cat is mouse-catching”. Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who initiated China‘s moves away from a socialist system in the 1970s, adapted it to say that it didn’t matter whether the cat was black or white “as long as it can catch mice”.
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‘Business As Usual’ Not Sound Climate Change Policy
8 March 2010, Roger Kerr
Business organisations have been taking stock of New Zealand’s climate change policy following the failure of the UN conference in Copenhagen last December.
Many urged the government not to rush the emissions trading legislation through parliament before Copenhagen and to await Australian and US decisions before finalising New Zealand policy.
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Raising the Performance of State-Owned Enterprises
8 May 2009, Roger Kerr
The government is concerned about the financial performance of state-owned enterprises. Many of them appear to have been achieving low returns on the large amounts of capital tied up in them. The same is true of some local government assets, such as shareholdings in port companies. Poor financial performance is a sign that scarce capital is being used inefficiently or being allocated to the wrong uses.
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Business is Good
4 March 2008, Roger Kerr
This week I had a dog flap installed in my kitchen door by a business specialising in just that. It's a highly efficient, one man (and his dog) business run by a former pet shop operator, who 14 years ago saw a niche for a person who understood the behaviour and needs of cats and dogs and their owners. He made it his business to master the skills involved in installing doors for almost any sized pet into almost any kind of surface.
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How Big is the Problem of Monopoly?
27 November 2006, Roger Kerr
This article was first published in the Dominion Post (27 November 2006).
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Regulation of Unlisted is Unwarranted
4 April 2005, Roger Kerr
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Hui Taumata: A Source of Optimism
11 March 2005, Roger Kerr
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Roderick Deane on Corporate Governance
11 February 2005, Roger Kerr
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In Economics Everything Takes Time
28 January 2005, Roger Kerr
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Reducing Barriers to Investment in Infrastructure
31 December 2004, Roger Kerr
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Multinational Companies Don't Rule the World
17 December 2004, Roger Kerr
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Is There a Problem With New Zealand's Management Capability?
27 August 2004, Roger Kerr
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The Role of Business in Historical Perspective and Today
30 July 2004, Roger Kerr
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A Refreshing Return to Sanity
1 March 2004, Roger Kerr
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Is the Labour Market Special?
1 March 2004, Roger Kerr
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Memo to Margaret Wilson: Please Engage
4 February 2004, Roger Kerr
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Employment Law Changes a Blast from the Past
30 January 2004, Roger Kerr
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Growth and Innovation: Yeah Right!
22 January 2004, Roger Kerr
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OECD Gives New Zealand a D Grade
22 December 2003, Roger Kerr
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was, in its own words, set up "to achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and employment and a rising standard of living in member countries", while contributing to world trade and development generally.
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Running out of oil - again
19 December 2003, Roger Kerr
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A country is not a company
8 December 2003, Roger Kerr
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Competition shouldn't be incarcerated: The case for privately managed prisons
26 November 2003, Roger Kerr
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Where everybody knows your name
15 September 2003, Roger Kerr
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Infrastructure: Why we need the 'failed' policies
15 July 2003, Bill Gallagher
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Economic freedom gains ground - but not in New Zealand
14 July 2003, Roger Kerr
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New Zealand's slow slide to mediocrity
9 July 2003, Norman LaRocque
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Time off a matter best left to workers, bosses
9 July 2003, Tony Carter
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Do we want bureaucrats or entrepreneurs running business?
16 June 2003, Roger Kerr
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Groaning under a heavy burden
27 May 2003, Roger Kerr
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New Zealand Budget lacks a focus on growth
16 May 2003, Roger Kerr
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Will we get a Budget of substance?
14 May 2003, Roger Kerr
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Protectionism: Time to quit the habit
14 April 2003, Roger Kerr
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Making sense of sustainable development
4 April 2003, Roger Kerr
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The co-operative company as a business model
25 March 2003, Roger Kerr
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Getting back on the Australian radar screen
7 March 2003, Roger Kerr
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Making the boat go faster
10 January 2003, Bill Day
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R & D subsidy-seeking habit hard to break
6 January 2003, Roger Kerr
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Kyoto ratification - another Kiwi own goal
10 December 2002, Dr Bryce Wilkinson
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ICT report lacks policy framework
2 December 2002, Roger Kerr
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Economic transformation: action is lagging behind words
29 November 2002, Dr Murray Horn
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Limited Liability: A vital business institution
12 November 2002, Bill Day
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Perspectives
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Issue 385 “Socially Responsible” Corporations: Whose Wealth are they spreading around?
23 July 2010, James M Roberts
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) departments are much in vogue among Fortune 500 companies, but what do they really do? In Africa, Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere around the world, large corporations frequently boast about the social welfare CSR projects they fund as a way for them to "give back."
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Issue 384 We’ll Pay Dearly for this NBN Folly
21 July 2010, Henry Ergas
EIGHTEEN months ago, Telstra proposed risking $10 billion of its shareholders' money building a high-speed broadband network.
After that bid fell over, the government, dizzy with its success in the polls, decided to build a fibre network of its own. Why? Because, Kevin Rudd said at the time, the alternative would have been to pay Telstra "billions of dollars in compensation".
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Issue 378 Capitalism: Hollywood's Miscast Villain
24 June 2010, Alex Tabarrok
Capitalism hasn't had much good press lately, and when it comes to the movies capitalism never seems to get a fair shake. In the movies, capitalists are almost invariably cast as villains. Has someone been murdered? Are the residents of a small town dying of cancer? Is an environment being despoiled? Look no further than the CEO of some large corporation.
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Issue 376 'Basically an Optimist' - Still
17 June 2010, Peter Robinson
"No, no. Not at all."
So says Gary Becker when asked if the financial collapse, the worst recession in a quarter of a century, and the rise of an administration intent on expanding the federal government have prompted him to reconsider his commitment to free markets.
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Issue 359 The Business of Climate Change
13 April 2010, Pete Geddes
Global warming has created a breeding ground for political capitalists. These are businesses that are expert at manipulating the political process to gain profits they can’t make in the competitive marketplace. The opportunities for political capitalism increase with the size and scope of government. When government allocates resources and imposes constraints it is generally to serve the strong and entrenched; the weak and aspiring suffer. The recent health care reform clearly exemplifies just this sort of mischief.
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Issue 352 The Scalia v. Stevens Smackdown
14 March 2010, Daniel Henninger
Nothing—not even George W. Bush—has sent liberaldom screaming into the streets more than the Supreme Court's recent 5-4 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The Court's ruling that corporations have a free-speech right to express opinions about politicians running for office really let the furies out.
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Issue 350 Why weren’t there Housing Bubbles Everywhere?
9 March 2010, Thomas Sowell
During bad times, the blame game is the biggest game in Washington. Wall Street "greed" or "predatory" lenders seem to be favorite targets to blame for our current economic woes.
When government policy is mentioned at all in handing out blame, it is usually blamed for not imposing enough regulation on the private sector. But there is still the question whether any of these explanations can stand up under scrutiny.
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Issue 335 The Silence of Mammon
15 January 2010, Schumpeter, The Economist
It is hardly surprising that business has fallen from grace in recent years. The credit crunch almost plunged the world into depression. The new century began with the implosion of Enron and other prominent firms. Some bosses pay themselves like princes while preaching austerity to their workers. Business titans who once graced the covers of magazines have been hauled before congressional committees or carted off to prison.
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Issue 322 Learning to Love Insider Trading
25 November 2009, Donald J. Bourdreaux
Here’s a hot tip: Want to keep companies honest, make the markets work more efficiently and encourage investors to diversify? Let insiders buy and sell, argues Donald J. Bourdreaux.
It's Halloween season, and the scariest demons in the world of business are insider traders, lurking behind every stockbroker's desk and four-star restaurant banquette. They whisper dark corporate secrets into the ears of venal speculators, and inflict pain and agony upon ordinary investors.
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Issue 294 PM's national broadband plan really is no net gain
28 August 2009, Chris Berg
Has there ever been a major Commonwealth program more hastily conceived than the national broadband network?
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Issue 289 If David Cameron wants to govern, he should stop being afraid of ideas
12 August 2009, Simon Heffer
You may recall the Beyond the Fringe sketch in which Squadron Leader Peter Cook tells Jonathan Miller, the doleful pilot, that he must set out on a doomed mission because "we need a futile gesture at this stage. It will raise the whole tone of the war".
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Issue 287 When wind power blows, jobs will fall
31 July 2009, Dominic Lawson
Miliband's citing of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech in support of his policy of subsidising the construction of many thousands of otherwise uneconomic wind turbines might appear grotesque, even comical; but not if you genuinely believe that Britain's switching from coal to wind power for its electricity generation will save the lives of countless Africans. I have no idea whether Miliband truly believes that it will - but if he does, he is deluded.
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Issue 286 All Honor to Jefferson
29 July 2009, Jean Yarbrough
Instead of consolidating power or attempting to forge a general will, Jefferson went in the opposite direction, "dividing and sub-dividing" political power, while multiplying the number of interests and views that could be heard. He saw these units of local self-government as a way of bringing the large republic within the reach of citizens and so keeping alive the spirit of republicanism so vital to its preservation. And in this day and age, when the federal government seems to intrude on every aspect of our daily lives, and people feel powerless over matters of most interest to them, can we doubt that he was right? For this insight, too, let us echo Lincoln: "All honor to Jefferson"!
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Issue 278 Money: How it Works and Why
1 July 2009, Steven Horwitz
Money is one human institution that is so ubiquitous that we do not often step back and try to understand exactly how it works and why. After all, when one thinks about it, it is somewhat strange that a customer can walk into a store, hand over a piece of paper with ink on it, or just transfer some bytes of information over a computer, and walk out with merchandise worth much more than the ink and paper or the bytes. How has it come to be that we engage in this massive network of trust that we call monetary exchange? What exactly makes something money, and what role does money play in the economy and in generating economic growth and preserving economic freedom?
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Issue 76, Why do capitalists have to 'give back'?
24 August 2006, Steve Forbes
The following is adapted from a speech delivered at Hillsdale College on 29 January 2006.
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Issue 71, Corporate responsibility is to make profits
28 February 2006, John Roskam
Sometimes it takes a while for things to sink in. After a decade of talking about corporate social responsibility, it is only in the past few years that companies have come to appreciate the consequences of signing up to what seemed like a good idea at the time.
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Markets and morality: a look at the facts
26 September 1996, Roger Kerr
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Media Releases
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Developments in the New Zealand Corporate Sector
1 July 2005, Roger Kerr
"An article in the latest Reserve Bank Bulletin provides some useful facts about developments in the New Zealand corporate sector in recent years", Roger Kerr, executive director of the New Zealand Business Roundtable, said today.
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