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Displaying: 1 - 82 of 82 items.
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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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Where To From Here - Progress On The Confidence & Supply Agreement between ACT and National
20 February 2009, Rodney Hide
Both National and ACT want to see a more prosperous and cohesive nation driven by the initiative and hard work of individual people. But ACT also believes our national productivity performance will need to increase dramatically to match that of Australia.
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Nudging Us Into the Third Way?
9 October 2008, Roger Kerr
Now a new attempt at a third way has come along in the form of a book titled Nudge... Their basic idea is very simple and familiar. By 'nudging' they mean slightly tilting the playing field to make it easier for us to choose certain things in preference to others. But full individual freedom of choice is retained.
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Are Voters Irrational?
10 July 2008, Roger Kerr
Bad policies typically confer a benefit on a small number of citizens but a much greater cost on the public as a whole. Thus an import tariff benefits import-competing industries but imposes a disproportionate burden on exporting industries, whose costs are increased by the tariff, and on consumers, who have to pay higher prices for both domestic and imported goods than they would if trade were free.
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Leadership
5 March 2008, Alan Gibbs
Peter Blake was a good friend of mine. He was a great man; a leader, an inspiration, and someone who was fun to be around. I don't go looking to give speeches these days, but I'm pleased to talk about the Peter Blake Leadership Awards. They are a fitting tribute to the man and they help keep alive some of the ideals that so animated him during his life.
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'Left' and 'Right': Stars to Steer by or Black Holes?
4 March 2008, Roger Kerr
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The Black Swan
26 January 2008, Roger Kerr
The world in the year 2000 was in some ways strikingly similar to the world in 1900. Both were periods of globalisation: in preceding decades international trade had become progressively freer and international capital flows had been liberalised, leading them to increase hugely.
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MMP and Public Policy
2 August 2007, Graeme Hunt
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Parliament and Policy Making
2 August 2007, Charles Chauvel
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Public Policy: Objectives and Principles
2 August 2007, Roger Kerr
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The economic State of the Nation
2 August 2007, Roderick Deane
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The Year Ahead: An Australian Perspective
16 February 2007, Janet Albrechtsen
Presented at a meeting of the New Zealand Business Roundtable
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The State of the Nation
16 February 2007, Roderick Deane
This speech was to a meeting of the New Zealand Business Roundtable.
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Ideology and Pragmatism in Public Policy
11 October 2005, Roger Kerr
Roger Kerr to the Stokes Valley Rotary Club in Wellington.
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Cowboy Capitalism: European Myths, American Reality
18 July 2005, Roger Kerr
Roger Kerr's speech to the Rotorua Rotary Club
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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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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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Economics and Politics of Transition
12 January 2004, Roger Kerr
Speech by Roger Kerr to Mont Pelerin Society Special Regional Meeting, Sri Lanka
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Fairness
17 March 2000, Douglas Myers
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Politics, Markets and Voluntary Action: Different Mechanisms, Different Roles
6 August 1999, Roger Kerr
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The Nineteenth Century: Folklore vs History
6 April 1998, Roger Kerr
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Competition and Cooperation
12 November 1997, Roger Kerr
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Seven Deadly Economic Sins of the Twentieth Century
6 August 1997, Roger Kerr
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What's All This About Individualism?
21 April 1997, Roger Kerr
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What's All This About Greed?
27 February 1997, Roger Kerr
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Morality, Capitalism and Democracy
7 December 1992, Roger Kerr
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Professionalism in the Media
1 September 1992, Roger Kerr
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Labels
31 May 1991, Roger Kerr
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Books and reports
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Economic Fact File
on New Zealand Economy
31 October 2008, New Zealand Business Roundtable
The first part of the file comprises New Zealand statistics produced mainly by New Zealand statistical authorities. The second part contains some international
comparisons of New Zealand trends and rankings vis á vis other countries.
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Understanding America
24 August 2005, Richard A Epstein
I have been assigned a fiendishly large topic. How do you deal with so vast
a subject? Perhaps I should change the topic. Indeed, I shall - not by
eliminating it, but by using my legal skills to turn it into something that is
more digestible and coherent.
It is, of course, impossible, in talking about a sprawling country like the
United States, to touch on every divisive issue that arises in its popular
culture. Instead, I want to identify a single fault line that will allow us to see
and understand some of the perennial splits in American society. To put this
in the context of Paul Johnson's reference to the problem-solving nature of
Americans, I will talk not about the way in which the United States has solved
its past problems, but rather about a set of problems it faces today - problems
that in many ways have had Americans growing further apart rather than
coming closer together.
Tradition and liberty
As a way of approaching this large theme, I want to back off to address a strong
theme in America political thought, which has shown a deep attachment and
respect to our 'traditional liberties'. Rather than praise this sensible and
sonorous notion, I want to address the implicit tension that resides within it.
No matter how hard we tug and pull, the twin concepts 'tradition' and 'liberty'
do not work in harmony in all areas of social life. Indeed, at some points they
are profoundly opposed, and it is that opposition between them - where the
forces of tradition and liberty collide in strange fashions - that is the source
of so much political tension in the United States today.
NZ $12.50
incl GST
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Behavioural Economics
13 June 2005, Richard A Epstein
'We are all behaviouralists now'
There is a natural cycle in intellectual development. New ideas begin as isolated
and idiosyncratic attacks from without. At first, the establishment treats them
with scorn. But, as the ideas persist, it is forced to confront the pesky intruders
on their merits, which the establishment does with ingenuity and
determination. But then the tide of battle turns, and the former outsiders
become the new orthodoxy.
NZ $12.50
incl GST
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A Country is not a Company
1 June 2005, Richard A Epstein
Features of a company
One of the most famous statements about the relationship between a company
and a state is contained in a remark by Charles E Wilson ('Engine Charlie' of
General Motors) when he was being questioned for his appointment as
Secretary of Defence in 1953, the early days of the Eisenhower administration.
He said that, "for years I thought what was good for our country was good
for General Motors and vice versa". The clear intention of this statement was
that the social policies that worked to preserve the long-term success of the
nation were also those policies that worked on behalf of General Motors, at
that time (but no longer) the dominant corporate firm in the United States.
One obvious virtue of the proposition is that it began with the view that sound
national policies started with the nation, and then reverberated to the benefit
of the firm. The obvious criticism of the remark centred about the words "vice
versa", which clearly overstated the case: corporate welfare could benefit the
firm and hurt the nation, for example.
NZ $12.50
incl GST
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Family Matters: Family Breakdown and its Consequences
17 December 2004, Patricia Morgan
All Western nations have seen a decline in the institution of the traditional family. Marriage rates and overall fertility are falling while divorce rates and out-of-wedlock births are rising. In New Zealand these trends have been remarkable in their intensity: the family is in a worse state here than almost anywhere else.
In some quarters the decline of the family has been celebrated rather than mourned. The traditional family based on marriage is seen as oppressive; "new family forms" offer the opportunity for free expression. In fact, these family forms are not new - there have always been broken and incomplete families. What is new is the scale of their occurrence.
NZ $34.95
incl GST
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Equity as a Social Goal
1 March 2000, Cathy Buchanan and Peter Hartley
Equity as a Social Goal seeks to clarify the notion of equity, or fairness, as a goal of public policy. The authors, Cathy Buchanan and Peter Hartley, consider what the goals of public policy ought to be, given the limitations of human nature and real-world social institutions. They argue that both liberty and efficiency must be included among our social goals. While horizontal equity, or non-discriminatory treatment of equals, is desirable, attempting to equalise income or material wealth is misguided.
Neither income nor wealth is a good indicator of personal well-being. Redistributing to equalise income or wealth could therefore exacerbate inequality in living standards. Government redistribution aimed at achieving more equal outcomes also compromises both liberty and efficiency and does little to help those truly in need. Welfare policy based on compassion, rather than reducing measured inequality, allows society to help the less fortunate, while preserving the liberties and opportunities of all.
Equity as a Social Goal concludes that preserving liberty and efficiency requires us to safeguard the right of all people to use their labour and property as they see fit. A proper balance among liberty, efficiency and equity can be achieved by ensuring that each person is equal before the law, by promulgating a belief in the power and duty of families and charities to assist those in need, and by creating a limited government welfare programme to aid people who fail to receive assistance elsewhere.
NZ $34.95
incl GST
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Paul Johnson in New Zealand
1 December 1995, Paul Johnson
In a series of addresses to New Zealand audiences on the 'great questions' facing humanity at the end of the twentieth century, Paul Johnson discusses how politics, the economy, education, and religion have undergone immense changes in recent decades, often with harmful effects on society.
NZ $15.00
incl GST
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Submissions
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Submission on the New Zealand Bill of Rights (Private Property Rights) Amendment Bill
12 August 2005, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Submission on the Draft Report on Oil Security Prepared for the Ministry of Economic Development by Covec and Hale & Twomey Limi
1 December 2004, New Zealand Business Roundtable
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Submission on the Lawyers and Conveyancers Bill
6 November 2003, New Zealand Business Roundtable
The NZBR and its members have a major stake in the performance of the legal profession and the legal system. Large businesses are major users of legal services, both for advice and litigation.
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Articles
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Ireland: Lessons from Success and from Failure
5 November 2010, Roger Kerr, Otago Daily Times
In the wake of the global financial crisis and Ireland’s self-inflicted economic woes, some commentators have leapt to the conclusion that its apparent success in the decade and a half to around 2005 was a mirage.
They have pronounced the Celtic Tiger dead, and added insult to injury by arguing that current austerity policies will make Ireland’s predicament worse.
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What’s All This About New Zealand Management?
27 August 2010, Roger Kerr, the Otago Daily Times
Last month Rebecca Macfie wrote an article in the Listener entitled “Our slack bosses”. In it she argued that “one of New Zealand’s dirtiest little secrets is that our businesses are not very well managed” and that “the poor quality of New Zealand managers is holding the country back”.
Journalist Rod Oram has made similar claims. Do they stand up to scrutiny?
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Whatever Happened to the Idea of Progress?
25 September 2009, Roger Kerr
The idea of progress – human flourishing in all its dimensions – has permeated Western thinking since ancient times. It has been defined as the belief that material, political, social, intellectual and moral conditions have continually improved throughout human history and that such an improvement will continue in the foreseeable future. Belief in progress characterised the writings of the philosophers and classical economists of the 18th century Enlightenment, and nurtured the agricultural and industrial revolutions of that era.
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Last Rites for the Cullen Fund?
10 June 2009, Roger Kerr
Commentators have suggested that the government's decision to suspend automatic contributions to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund (the so called Cullen Fund) may spell its eventual demise. Should we mourn that outcome? Would it have any implications for future superannuation benefits, as some have suggested? The answer to both questions is no.
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The Importance of Economics Education
27 February 2009, Roger Kerr
Of course, there is seldom complete agreement among economists just as there is rarely complete agreement in other scientific fields, but the degree of consensus on many issues provides a sound basis for much public policy.
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The Role of the Media in the General Election
20 October 2008, Roger Kerr
Overseas visitors often observe that New Zealand media are weak on economic commentary. This is perhaps unfair... Nevertheless, it is true that examples of poorly informed economic commentary abound.
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Financial Turmoil: Market Failure or Government Failure?
29 September 2008, Roger Kerr
As the Wall Street Journal observed, the great irony is that the banks that made some of the worst mortgage investments were the most highly regulated. Bank regulators cannot possibly spot all weaknesses. More emphasis must go on caveat emptor - investors and depositors beware.
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Sense and Nonsense About Happiness
29 August 2008, Roger Kerr
The Easterlin Paradox was always a dubious proposition. Simple observation suggests most people strive for a wealthier life for themselves and their children. I will believe otherwise when trade unions stop making wage claims.
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Hong Kong: The Benefits of Economic Freedom
11 April 2008, Roger Kerr
Hong Kong (now a Special Administrative Region of China) is a remarkable place.Few who visit fail to be impressed by the work ethic of its people and its energy, dynamism and prosperity.
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The Perils of Populism
14 March 2008, Roger Kerr
As prime minister, 'Rob' Muldoon was often described as an economic 'populist'. He claimed to be on the side of "the ordinary bloke". Economic historian Gary Hawke described him as "an inveterate meddler, an overconfident, self-proclaimed economic manager with a demagogic streak."
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Why Investors See Red Over Black Swans
8 February 2008, Roger Kerr
A book entitled The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, an American financial trader of Lebanese origin, has a timely message, given the recent unexpected turmoil in financial markets.Taleb sets out what he thinks has gone wrong with our attempts to forecast events, in both finance and generally. We are wedded to the assumption that the future is likely to resemble the present. We study past events and regularities, and work out the probability of their recurring.
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Can The Media Help Promote Economic Literacy?
11 January 2008, Roger Kerr
This article is an appeal to the media.Speaking to the Journalism Education Association in Wellington recently, prime minister Helen Clark said she wished the New Zealand media were better informed about, among other things, economics.This seems to be a case of not knowing how lucky she is. New Zealand's rate of productivity growth has slumped on her watch.
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The Real Downsides of Remoteness
14 December 2007, Roger Kerr
The downsides of being a small and remote country are often misunderstood.
Its small population and distance from markets did not stop New Zealand being one of the world's wealthiest countries a hundred years ago. Small, open economies can do just fine.
Much more important are the problems of not knowing at first hand what other countries are doing, and failing to absorb into local institutions and policies the lessons from their successes and mistakes.
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Good Institutions and Policies, Not Mining, Account for Australia's Prosperity
30 November 2007, Roger Kerr
Speaking on TV One's Agenda programme recently, finance minister Michael Cullen said, "Don't forget Australia's wealth is very largely built on its quite crude minerals exports, particularly gas and coal."
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Do Economists Agree on Anything? Yes!
2 November 2007, Roger Kerr
You sometimes hear the line that if all the world's economists were laid end to end, they wouldn't reach a conclusion. This is something of a cheap shot.True, there are debates in economics, just as there are in any science (take climate change). And in economics there are outliers (and many amateurs), just as there are quacks in medicine.
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Back to Basics on Election Funding
21 September 2007, Roger Kerr
Seldom has a bill received such vehement and widespread criticism as the Electoral Finance Bill currently before parliament.
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Public Policy Riddles
7 September 2007, Roger Kerr
Two Bedouins are riding their camels through the desert. One of them starts complaining about how slow their camel is. The other responds that theirs is slower. They finally bet on the issue. The oasis is three miles off and they agree that the person whose camel gets to the oasis last wins the bet.
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Roger Douglas: Visionary Leader
15 December 2006, Roger Kerr
This article was first published in the Otago Daily Times on 15 December 2006.
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Flatter Taxes Still the International Trend
29 November 2006, Roger Kerr
This article was first published in the Financial Review 29 November 2006
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Building a Culture of Philanthropy
28 July 2006, Roger Kerr
This article was first published in the Otago Daily Times, 28 July 2006
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What's Wrong with Keynesian Economics?
28 February 2006, Roger Kerr
This article was first published in the Otago Daily Times (24 February 2006)
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New Rights New Zealand:
Myths, Moralities and Markets (a book review)
14 September 2005, Roger Kerr
This review was first published in The Press (10 September 2005)
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Should We Fear China?
16 August 2005, Roger Kerr
This article was first published in the Otago Daily Times (12 August 2005)
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New Zealand Families Matter
17 December 2004, Patricia Morgan
The family is now in a worse state in New Zealand than almost anywhere else.
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Key issues for Maori are also those of wider society
3 December 2004, Roger Kerr
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Hard-headed spending decisions not cold-hearted
2 July 2004, Roger Kerr
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Sage Words
2 January 2004, Roger Kerr
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A country is not a company
8 December 2003, Roger Kerr
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Restoring philanthropy in New Zealand
14 August 2003, Roger Kerr
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Perspectives
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Issue 410 A Partial Defence of GDP
8 November 2010, Julie Novak
The human inclination to measure and record the existing state of its economic and social welfare is almost as old as human existence itself.
In 1086 the Domesday Book was completed, providing an account of the worth of land and livestock throughout England. About 600 years later William Petty published Verbum Sapienti (1665) and Political Arithmetick (1676), early forerunners of national accounts for England/Wales and the Netherlands/France respectively.
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Issue 386 Down with Doom: How the World Keeps Defying the Predictions of Pessimists
28 July 2010, Matt Ridley
When I was a student, in the 1970s, the world was coming to an end. The adults told me so. They said the population explosion was unstoppable, mass famine was imminent, a cancer epidemic caused by chemicals in the environment was beginning, the Sahara desert was advancing by a mile a year, the ice age was retuning, oil was running out, air pollution was choking us and nuclear winter would finish us off.
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Issue 377 Don't Panic, it's only Prophecy
22 June 2010, Owen Harries
Today’s university graduates are going out into the world in less than optimistic circumstances, with not one but several predictions of doom hovering over their heads and the world at large. Among them are global warming, the collapse of capitalism, the prospect of more terrorism and further nuclear proliferation.
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Issue 348 It’s Always the End of the World as We Know It
24 February 2010, Dennis Dutton
IT seems so distant, 1999. Bill Clinton had survived impeachment, his popularity hardly dented, Sept. 11 was just another date and music fans were enjoying a young singer named Britney Spears.
But there was a particular unease in the air. The so-called Y2K problem, the inability of computers to read dates beyond 1999 threatened to turn Jan. 1, 2000 into a nightmare. The issue had first been noticed by programmers in the 1950s, but had been ignored. As the turn of the century loomed, though, it seemed that humankind faced a litany of horrors
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Issue 347 Dont Like the Numbers? Change 'Em
22 February 2010, Michael J Boskin
Politicians and scientists who don't like what their data show lately have simply taken to changing the numbers. They believe that their end—socialism, global climate regulation, health-care legislation, repudiating debt commitments, la gloire française—justifies throwing out even minimum standards of accuracy. It appears that no numbers are immune: not GDP, not inflation, not budget, not job or cost estimates, and certainly not temperature. A CEO or CFO issuing such massaged numbers would land in jail.
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Issue 346 The Populist Addiction
17 February 2010, David Brooks
Politics, some believe, is the organization of hatreds. The people who try to divide society on the basis of ethnicity we call racists. The people who try to divide it on the basis of religion we call sectarians. The people who try to divide it on the basis of social class we call either populists or elitists.
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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.
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Issue 92, Why we love government
10 May 2007, Walter E Williams
This article was first published on www.townhall.com
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Issue 58, Economic prosperity and morality go hand in hand
25 February 2005, Fr. Robert Sirico
Since the United States presidential election, some political analysts are making distinctions between voters who are motivated by economic considerations and those driven by moral and cultural questions
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Economies in transition
25 October 1996, Roger Kerr
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Privatising Russia
18 October 1996, Roger Kerr
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Media Releases
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Inclusion of Property Rights in Bill of Rights Act Supported
10 December 2006, New Zealand Business Roundtable
The Business Roundtable told the Justice and Electoral Select Committee today that it supported MP Gordon Copeland's bill incorporating private property rights in the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (copy of submission attached)...
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Business Roundtable Applauds Hui Taumata
3 March 2005, New Zealand Business Round Table
This week's Hui Taumata has underlined the very encouraging and forward-looking trends in Maori thinking about economic development, according to Business Roundtable chairman Rob McLeod and executive director Roger Kerr, who were both participants at the Hui.
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E-Connects
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When Ideas Have Sex
19 July 2010, Matt Ridley
British author Matt Ridley argues that, through history, the engine of human progress and prosperity has been, and is, "ideas having sex with each other."
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Roger Kerr - The People, Writers and Thinkers who Influenced His Ideas
31 October 2009, Chris Laidlaw and Roger Kerr
Chris Laidlaw interviews Roger Kerr on the people, writers and thinkers who have influenced his ideas.
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