Issue 33 November 2010
Wanted: Economics. Dead or Alive?
The 2008 global financial crisis resulted in a number of casualties. In the eyes of many, one such casualty is economics itself. According to these critics, economics has failed dismally: it failed to prevent the crisis, it failed to predict the crisis, and it even contributed to causing the crisis. Glenn Boyle argues that proponents of such a view have much in common with medieval monarchs who removed the heads of those bearing unwelcome news, and that sensible commentary on economics has been the real victim of the crisis.
Bagging broadband productivity
Fast internet access is widely considered to be a productivity-enhancing factor, leading to calls for governments to finance new fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks. But Mark Obren has surveyed the literature on productivity gains from broadband deployment - and he finds that the relationship is neither simple nor straightforward.
Climate Change: winners and losers in New Zealand's electricity market
Lewis Evans and Graeme Guthrie employ their dynamic continuous-time model of the New Zealand electricity spot market to provide insights into the effects that climate change - and policies such as the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) - might have on key market-performance indicators. They find that ETS solves some problems but creates others.
Institutions Rule
How have 800 years of political and economic developments in western society resulted in modern-day efficient markets? Cheyne Cudby, in a 2010 essay for ECON330, explored the institutional foundations underlying market behaviour and how these have evolved over time to facilitate efficient coordinated activity. This article is an abridged version of her essay.
Institutions Rule 33kB Strategopoly: playing with the nation's assets
Air New Zealand in 2001; Auckland International Airport and KiwiRail in 2008 ... the New Zealand government has on at least three occasions in the not-so-distant past intervened in private market transactions to secure for itself, or place limitations upon, who can own or control so-called 'strategic assets'. And in recent months the 'strategic asset' label has been applied to dairy farms in order to justify restrictions on foreign ownership. Dave Heatley and Bronwyn Howell ask what characteristics of an asset make it strategic, particularly in the national policy context.
Broadband for all?
Stanford Levin reflects on international trends in broadband universal-service policy - and asks whether policymakers are clear on the important distinction between availability and use.
Broadband for all? 43kB