Category Archives: Regulation & Taxation

The Benefits and Costs Of Gambling: Some Policy Implications

Commissioned Report: April 2010 Keywords: Health; Regulation & Taxation; Social Policy; Executive Summary The following is not the usual executive summary. Rather it draws out the policy implications of the known costs and benefits of gambling, thereby summarising the main report, which consists of two parts. Appendix I is a general account about how economists…
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Tax and Equity

PSA Journal, March 2010. Keywords: Distributional Economics; Regulation & Taxation; In my Commercialisation of New Zealand there is a chapter on ‘the abandoning of equity’, of how under Rogernomics social fairness went steadily down in the policy priorities. The report on tax reform by the Victoria University of Wellington Tax Working Group (TWG) confirms the…
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The Complete Package

Sue Bradford’s departure leaves a huge gap in the Greens, and Parliament. Listener: 12 December, 2009. Keywords: Regulation & Taxation; Social Policy; To work properly, the market must be “complete” – that is, all possible transactions must be able to be carried out. For example, those who invested in finance firms such as Bridgecorp should…
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Targeting the Minimum Price Of Alcohol

This paper was prepared in October 2009 for the Law Commission when it was reviewing alcohol policy. It is released under the Official Information Act. Keywords: Health;  Regulation & Taxation Terms of Reference The Law Commission has asked for a report describing how a minimum price regime for alcoholic beverages might be implemented, and what…
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Equity and the Tax System

Tax, Saving Welfare and Retirement: Have We Lost our Way? Symposium, Retirement Policy and Research Centre, University of Auckland, 16 July, 2009   Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Maynard Keynes   Keywords: Distributional Economics; History of Ideas, Methodology &…
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Understanding the Fiscal Imperatives

Paper for Towards a Value Driven Public Sector Summit, 15 July, 2009.   Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Regulation & Taxation; Social Policy;   Before talking about the fiscal imperatives in the narrow sense, I want to make a couple of general remarks about the rhetoric of policy. .   The first is that the need…
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Fair Means or Foul? Discussions About Tax Reform Are Ignoring Some Crucial Issues.

Listener: 4 April, 2009.   Keywords: Regulation & Taxation;   At a recent conference sponsored by the Centre for Accounting, Governance and Taxation Research, the first two expert speakers each had 25 years’ experience in taxation reform, one in Australia, the other New Zealand. But if they haven’t got it right after a combined 50…
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The Macroeconomic Crisis: Policy Implications

Paper for the 6th Annual Policy Evolution Conference; 16 March, 2009, Wellington (Revised)  Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Regulation & Taxation;  The International Financial Crisis  I have but a short time for my presentation, so I am going to focus on a single facet of the macroeconomics of social policy, the coming fiscal crisis.  By way…
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Costal Occupancy Charges.

Statement of Evidence of Brian Henry Easton in an Appeal Under The Resource Management Act 1991 between Margaret and  Stephen Thompson Marlborough District Council (Env-2006-WLG-000038)   Keywords: Environment & Resources;  Regulation & Taxation;   Introduction   I.                    My name is Brian Henry Easton. I am an independent scholar with particular expertise in economics, social statistics…
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So You Want Tax Cuts?

Cutting ‘wasteful’ public spending will not be easy.  Listener: 28 June, 2008.  Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Regulation & Taxation;  The other side of taxation is government spending. Reducing tax levels means government outlays have to be reduced too, if not immediately then eventually when the borrowing is repaid.  So when someone says, “We should cut…
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Financial Ruin

Aftershocks from the liquidity earthquake.  Listener: 14 June, 2008.  Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Regulation & Taxation;  It is usually assumed that light-handed regulation works where there is a competitive market, with backing legislation, such as the Commerce Act and the Fair Trading Act, and a judicial process that vigorously enforces the law. (A decade ago,…
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Civilised Drinking

Cheers to George Laking: 1912-2008. Listener: 23 February, 2008. Keywords: Health; Regulation & Taxation; Sir George Laking rendered many services to New Zealanders. Perhaps none was as important as his chairing the 1989 government committee that recommended today’s liquor licensing regime. The consumption of liquor has always been a problem, less so in the distant…
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The Current State Of the Public Sector: an Economist’s View

The 11th Annual Public Sector Finance Forum. 10 September, 2007     Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Regulation & Taxation; Statistics;    It has been my lot to be asked to give two papers to this Public Sector Finance Forum. Today’s paper might be called the ‘macroeconomics’ paper, in which I look at the size of…
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Shaping the Way We Play: an Economist’s View

The 11th Annual Public Sector Finance Forum. 11 September, 2007     Keywords: Governance; Regulation & Taxation; Statistics;    In my paper yesterday, I argued that we too frequently misuse data for rhetorical and political purposes. Today’s paper is an extension of that theme, but it focuses on a less conscious process, while providing an…
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The Current State Of the Public Sector: an Economist’s View

The 11th Annual Public Sector Finance Forum. 10 September, 2007     Keywords: Macroeconomics & Money; Regulation & Taxation; Statistics;    It has been my lot to be asked to give two papers to this Public Sector Finance Forum. Today’s paper might be called the ‘macroeconomics’ paper, in which I look at the size of the…
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