April 2017 AI (#58) includes interview with Karacaoglu

Asymmetric Information Issue No. 58

Contents

  • Editorial
  • An Interview with Girol Karacaoglu (by Joey Au)
  • The ‘Five Minute Interview’ (Kirdan Lees)
  • (Ir)rationality and the Case for Behavioural Economics (by Jan Feld)
  • Blogwatch (by Paul Walker)
  • (Motu) STEM Graduates and Productivity (by David C Maré, Trinh Le, Richard Fabling and Nathan Chappell)
  • (Stats New Zealand) Statistics New Zealand’s household surveys programme (by Patrick Ongley)
  • Report from GEN
  • A R Bergstrom Prize in Econometrics 2017
  • Research in Progress (Auckland University of Technology)
  • NEW MEMBERS (2017, through to 15 March)

Transport Economics Knowledge Hub seminar in May 2017

The Ministry of Transport and Transport Economics Knowledge Hub invite you to:

The costs and benefits of urban development: Theory and evidence by Peter Nunns

Transport that serves urban and economic development by Chris Parker

Time and date: 10:00am to 11:30am, Friday 19 May 2017

Venue: Grant Thornton Building, Level 13, 215 Lambton Quay, Wellington

RSVP: knowledgehub@transport.govt.nz (by Monday 15 May 2017)

Abstracts

The costs and benefits of urban development: Theory and evidence

An important question for urban planning is where and when there is a case to limit development to manage the potential for market failure. However, there have been relatively few attempts to comprehensively compare the costs of restricting development with the various positive and negative externalities that are managed by doing so. This paper attempts to fill that gap. In doing so, it identifies how it would be possible to raise wellbeing by enabling more competitive, responsive urban development markets. To close, it asks whether alternative policy mechanisms are needed to efficiently enable urban development while appropriately addressing market failure.

Transport that serves urban and economic development

Chris will briefly cover his earlier research on how to generalise transport economic appraisals to capture their effects on land use through urban and economic development. He’ll first frame this up with Coase’s critique against the marginalist approach to economics. Finally he’ll explain how and why the transport sector should broaden its horizons and deeply engage with any reforms associated with the Productivity Commission’s Better Urban Planning inquiry.

About the speakers

Peter is Principal Economist at MRCagney, a transport and urban planning consultancy with offices in Auckland, Brisbane, and Melbourne. His current work includes development of business cases for several major transport projects in Auckland, including the Northwestern Busway and the 2018-2028 cycling programme, and the implementation of the National Policy Statement on Urban Development Capacity.

Chris is Principal Advisor at Treasury covering housing and building environments. He was Chief Economist at Auckland Council, and before then specialised in transport economics and appraisal when at NZIER and Hyder Consulting.

 

 

2017 NZEP Issue 1 available

The contents of New Zealand Economic Papers, Volume 51, Issue 1, 2017 (available online or by subscription):

  • Commodity trade between the US and Korea and the J-curve effect by Mohsen Bahmani-Oskooee, Jia Xu & Sujata Saha
  • Estimating the willingness to pay for Warmer and Drier Homes by John Gibson, Riccardo Scarpa & Halahingano Rohorua
  • Educational mismatches and earnings in the New Zealand labour market by Jian Z. Yeo & Sholeh A. Maani
  • Stability of an exponential distribution for New Zealand taxable personal income by R. John Irwin & Timothy C. Irwin
  • Labour supply in New Zealand and the 2010 tax and transfer changes by John Creedy & Penny Mok
  • The source of wealth by Elizabeth Webster
  • A note on inequality-preserving distributional changes by John Creedy

Conference presenters invited to enter for David Teece Prize in Industrial Organisation and Firm Behaviour

The David Teece Prize in Industrial Organisation and Firm Behaviour is a newly-established award made possible through the generous support of the Berkeley Research Group.

The prize will be awarded to the paper presented at the New Zealand Association of Economists annual conference that is deemed to make the best contribution to the study of industrial organisation and/or firm behaviour. Papers need not be applied to New Zealand, but preference will be given to those that demonstrate their results are relevant for New Zealand.

This $2,500 award is sponsored by Berkeley Research Group.

CONDITIONS OF ENTRY

  • Any paper that contributes to industrial organisation and/or firm behaviour may be entered in this competition.
  • Paper submission must meet all of the deadlines for abstract and full paper submission in order to remain eligible.
  • Entrants must be able to attend and present their paper at the NZAE Conference. The presentation may be either an Oral Presentation or Poster Presentation.
  • When submitting the abstract also select entry into this competition through the conference website.
  • It is the written paper that will be judged based on the following criteria: relevance to the fields of industrial organisation and/or firm behaviour; the quality of economic analysis; and relevance to New Zealand.

Dec 2016 AI (#57) includes interviews with Kerr and Nana

Asymmetric Information Issue No. 57

Contents

  • Editorial
  • An Interview with Suzi Kerr (by Lew Evans)
  • The ‘Five Minute Interview’ (Ganesh Nana)
  • NZIER Economics Award for 2016 John Creedy
  • NZAE Conference 2016 Attendee Survey
  • NZIER Economics Award Acceptance John Creedy
  • NZAE PhD Student Workshop 2017
  • (Motu) Income or Consumption: Which Better Predicts Subjective Wellbeing? (by Thomas Carver and Arthur Grimes)
  • WEAI Conferences, 2017 and 2018
  • Blogwatch (by Paul Walker)
  • GEN Update
  • A R Bergstrom Prize in Econometrics 2017
  • Research in Progress (University of Otago)
  • NEW MEMBERS (mid-July to mid-September 2016)
  • Stata advert

Financial Markets and Corporate Governance Conference 20-21 April 2017 at Victoria

CALL FOR PAPERS

8TH CONFERENCE ON FINANCIAL MARKETS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

 Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

 CONFERENCE: 20 & 21 April 2017             PHD SYMPOSIUM: 19 April 2017 

CONFERENCE

You are invited to submit papers for presentation at the 8th Conference on Financial Markets and Corporate Governance to be held on Thursday, 20th and Friday, 21st April 2017 at the Victoria Business School, Rutherford House, Bunny Street, Wellington.

The theme for the conference is Information and Capital Markets and papers on all aspects of Corporate Governance, Financial Reporting, Capital Markets, Corporate Finance, Investments and Funds Management, Emerging Markets, and related areas are welcome. The deadline for submissions is 28 November 2016.

CONFERENCE KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Professor Katherine Schipper

Thomas F. Keller Professor of Accounting

Fuqua School of Business

Duke University

 

Professor Peter Clarkson

Professor of Accounting

UQ Business School

University of Queensland

Professor Richard Roll

Linde Institute Professor of Finance,

Division of Humanities and Social Sciences

Caltech

 

Professor Renee Adams

Commonwealth Bank Chair in Finance

School of Banking and Finance

University of New South Wales


SPECIAL CONFERENCE ISSUE PACIFIC BASIN FINANCE JOURNAL

Pacific Basin Finance Journal will run a special conference issue of the journal and all presenters at the conference are invited to consider submitting their papers to the special issue. Pacific Basin Finance Journal, published by Elsevier, provides a specialised forum for the publication of academic research on capital markets.

AWARDS

Accounting Research Journal is offering an award of AUD1,000 for the best paper presented at the conference or symposium by an emerging scholar.

Securities Research Centre of Asia-Pacific (SIRCA) is offering an award of AUD1,000 for the best paper presented at the conference employing SIRCA data products.

PHD SYMPOSIUM

The conference will be preceded by a PhD symposium on Wednesday, 19 April 2017. The symposium will provide PhD students with the opportunity to present their proposal or a working paper and receive expert feedback on their academic work. Students may submit working papers in the same subject areas as covered by the conference.

HOSTS

The conference and PhD symposium are being hosted by Victoria University of Wellington (School of Accounting and Commercial Law, School of Economics and Finance, Centre for Accounting, Governance and Taxation Research), in conjunction with the Department of Banking and Finance, Monash Business School, Monash University, and La Trobe Business School, La Trobe University.

Further information on submission of papers and all other aspects of the conference and PhD symposium is available at: https://www.victoria.ac.nz/fmcg-2017

 

NZAE PhD Student Workshop 11 July 2017

The New Zealand Association of Economists is pleased to introduce its first PhD Student Workshop in Economics.  At this workshop, PhD students have the opportunity to present their work in progress in a friendly environment and receive feedback from academics and peers.  In doing so, students will meet members of the broader New Zealand Economics community. As well as networking with other PhD students, there may also be the opportunity to meet senior Economists and discuss career options with a postgraduate degree.

Students will not be able to present the same workshop paper at an oral session at the NZAE conference which takes place later that week. However, they will be strongly encouraged to present their workshop paper concurrently as a poster in the main conference – and present a revised version in an oral session in subsequent years.

For whom: PhD students in Economics who are either New Zealand-based or are New Zealand students studying abroad.  Preference will be given to PhD students in the first two years of their studies who register for the NZAE conference.

When: July 11th, 2017

Where: RBNZ, Wellington

A call for papers will be sent out in February 2017.

2017 NZAE Conference dates and keynotes

The NZAE are pleased to announce the following keynote speakesr at their 2017 Conference, held 12-14th July 2017 at Victoria University’s Rutherford House.

    • Lisa Cameron, Professor of Econometrics & Business Statistics, Monash, more.
    • William Strange, Professor of Business Economics, Rotman, more.
    • Andrew Atkeson, Professor of Economics and Finance, UCLA, more.
    • John Gibson, Professor of Economics, Waikato, more

Details including Programme and Paper Submission can be found at the dedicated NZAE Conference site.

2017 Conference important dates:

  • Wednesday 22nd February First notice of conference sent out
  • Wednesday 22nd February Portal for abstract submissions opens
  • Friday 24th March Final notice of conference sent out
  • Monday 27th March Conference registration opens
  • Monday 3rd April Abstracts Due
  • By Monday 24th April Notification of acceptances
  • Monday 15th May Registration deadline for presenters
  • Monday 15th May Deadline for early-bird registration
  • Monday 12th June Full papers due for entries to prizes
  • Wednesday 12th July Conference start
  • Friday 14th July Conference end

2016 NZEP Issue 3 celebrates 50 years of journal

The contents of New Zealand Economic Papers, Volume 50, Issue 3, 2016 (available online or by subscription):

  • Introduction to NZEP Special Issue by Gary Hawke
  • Fifty years of New Zealand Economic Papers: 1966 to 2015 by Robert A. Buckle & John Creedy
  • Recessions and recoveries in New Zealand’s post-Second World War business cycles by Viv B. Hall & C. John McDermott
  • Does New Zealand economics have a useful past? The example of trade policy and economic development by Geoffrey Brooke, Anthony Endres & Alan Rogers
  • Eighty years of urban development in New Zealand: impacts of economic and natural factors by Arthur Grimes, Eyal Apatov, Larissa Lutchman & Anna Robinson
  • Inequality in New Zealand 1983/84 to 2012/13 by Christopher Ball & John Creedy
  • New Zealand’s experience with changing its inflation target and the impact on inflation expectations by Michelle Lewis & C. John McDermott
  • Book review: A few hares to chase: the life and economics of Bill Phillips, by Alan Bollard, reviewed by Nicholas Barr

August 2016 AI (#56) with conference keynote abstracts

Asymmetric Information Issue 56

Contents:

  • Editorial
  • An Interview with Ilan Noy (by John Creedy)

  • The ‘Five Minute Interview’ (Judy Kavanagh)

  • NZAE Membership Survey 2015

  • NZAE Conference Keynote Speaker Abstracts

  • NZAE Conference Photos

  • Awards Presented at NZAE Conference 2016

  • Blogwatch (by Paul Walker)

  • (Motu) The Impact of the 90-day Trial Policy

    (by Nathan Chappell and Isabelle Sin)

  • WEAI Conferences, 2017 and beyond

  • GEN Annual Conference 2016

  • (Stats New Zealand) New Information in the

    Labour Market Estimates (by Sharon Snelgrove)

  • Two Recent New Zealand Publications

  • Research in Progress (University of Auckland)

  • NZAE Information and New Members

Transport Knowledge Hub seminar Wednesday 31 August

The Ministry of Transport, MBIE and Transport Economics Knowledge Hub

invite you to attend a seminar that will present on two topics:

Implementing the Transport Domain Plan and Transport Research Strategy by Joanne Leung, Principal Economist, Ministry of Transport

New Zealand’s productivity growth: prescriptions for lifting performance from the NZ productivity commission by Paul Conway, Director Economics & Research, NZ Productivity Commission

Time and date:       11:30am to 1:00pm, Wednesday 31 August 2016

Venue:                    Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE) , 15 Stout Street, Wellington

RSVP:                    knowledgehub@transport.govt.nz (by Monday 29 August 2016)

2016 NZEP Issue 2 including papers on inequality

The contents of New Zealand Economic Papers, Volume 50, Issue 2, 2016 (available online or by subscription):

  • Food expenditure and GST in New Zealand by Christopher Ball, John Creedy & Michael Ryan
  • Income redistribution and changes in inequality in New Zealand from 2007 to 2011: Alternative distributions and value judgements by John Creedy & Jesse Eedrah
  • Does stadium construction create jobs and boost incomes? The realised economic impacts of sports facilities in New Zealand by Samuel A. Richardson
  • Interpreting inequality measures and changes in inequality by John Creedy
  • The effects of home heating on asthma: evidence from New Zealand by Andrea Kutinova Menclova & Rachel Susan Webb
  • From complete to incomplete (contracts): A survey of the mainstream approach to the theory of privatisation by Paul Walker

Congratulations to recipients of NZAE prizes in 2016

Congratulations to the following recipients of prizes presented at NZAE Conference 2016. More detail on each prize is available at https://nzae.org.nz/prizes/

Honours Dissertation Prize Michael Callaghan
New Zealand Economic Policy Prize Sina Mashinchi
NZIER Poster prize – open Andrea Menclova
NZIER Poster prize – student Nazila Alinaghi
People’s choice poster Andrea Menclova
Jan Whitwell Doctoral Yonatan Dinku
Jan Whitwell Doctoral Lan Anh Tong
Jan Whitwell Bachelors / Masters Wilbur Townsend
Seamus Hogan Research Prize Anthony Anyanwu
Statistics NZ prize Lisa Meehan

David Teece awarded Distinguished Fellow of NZAE

TeeceBioProfessor David Teece is Professor of Business Administration and Thomas W. Tusher Chair in Global Business at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. He is also Director of the Tusher Center for the Management of Intellectual Capital. As an economist, he is renowned for his research on industrial organisation, technological change and innovation, particularly as it relates to competition policy and intellectual property.

Professor Teece gained a BA and MCom(Hons) (1971) from the University of Canterbury, before completing an MA and PhD (1975) at the University of Pennsylvania. He has held teaching and research positions at University of Canterbury, University of Oxford, Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania. He holds honorary doctorates from St. Petersburg State University, Copenhagen Business School, Lappeenranta University of Technology (Finland) and the University of Canterbury.

Professor Teece has a long and distinguished research record. His first publication appeared in New Zealand Economic Papers in 1971 (Falvey & Teece, 1971). He has published over 200 books and articles, including articles in American Economic Review, Economic Journal, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Economic Perspectives and Journal of Economic Literature. According to the Science Watch index of Scientific Research in Economics and Business, his Strategic Management Journal paper, ‘Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management’ was the most cited paper worldwide across these fields in the decade to 2005. He has been recognised by Accenture as one of the world’s top-50 business intellectuals.

Professor Teece’s research includes empirical tests of existing theories, especially in relation to transactions cost economics; new insights into the theory of the firm, such as the dynamic capabilities approach to the determinants of ongoing firm success; and synthesis of ideas from numerous fields to form new theories that are much greater than the sum of the parts.

A brief selection of papers illustrates some of the key intellectual approaches within his work. Professor Teece was one of the first economists to develop the Panzar–Willig concept of economies of scope to show that product diversification by a firm may be efficient if based on common and recurrent use of proprietary know-how (Teece, 1980). In his paper ‘Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management’ (Teece, Pisano, & Shuen, 1997) (cited over 25,000 times), he analysed the sources and methods of wealth creation and capture by private firms operating in environments of rapid technological change. As in his work on economies of scope, this work emphasised the importance of firms’ proprietary and difficult-to-trade knowledge assets in generating firm wealth. In a paper published in 2007 (Teece, 2007), he emphasises that a firm’s dynamic capabilities – which enable the firm to generate wealth on an ongoing basis – derive from an entrepreneurial approach that sees firms innovate and collaborate with other enterprises and institutions. It is through the resulting ongoing transformation that firms may escape the zero-profit condition so beloved by neo-classical economists. In recent work (Teece, 2014), Professor Teece has returned to a topic that he first visited in the 1980s applying the dynamic capabilities framework to explain the success of multi-national enterprises. At the core of all these contributions is the search for insights about the process of wealth creation at the firm level.

In addition to his prodigious and influential research output, Professor Teece is renowned for his ability to express complex ideas in non-technical language, making his ideas available to a broad public. His ability to think across fields and to relate his ideas to a broad audience has been of considerable use in the field of management consulting. He is Chairman and Principal Executive Officer of Berkeley Research Group, and was Co-Founder of LECG where he was Chairman (1988–2007) and Vice-Chairman (2007–2009).

Despite being based in the United States, David has kept close research, business and philanthropic links to New Zealand. He co-authored a paper in Journal of Economic Literature on New Zealand’s economic reforms (Evans, Grimes, Wilkinson, & Teece, 1996). He is a member of the Editorial Board for New Zealand Economic Papers and is an Honorary Member of LEANZ (Law and Economics Association of New Zealand). In addition, he is Chairman of the University of Canterbury Foundation Board of Trustees, and President of the University of Canterbury Foundation in America. Professor Teece was a co-founder of Kea (Kiwi Expatriates Abroad). In 2013, he became a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Across his many contributions, Professor David Teece has proved that he has the outstanding credentials required for the award of Distinguished Fellow of the New Zealand Association of Economists.

References

  1. Evans, L., Grimes, A., Wilkinson, B., & Teece, D. (1996). Economic reform in New Zealand 1984-95: The pursuit of efficiency. Journal of Economic Literature, 34(4), 1856–1902.
  2. Falvey, R.E., & Teece, D.J. (1971). The determination of residential section prices in some South Island Centres. New Zealand Economic Papers, 5, 100–106.
  3. Teece, D.J. (1980). Economies of scope and the scope of the enterprise. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 1(3), 223–247.
  4. Teece, D.J., Pisano, G., & Shuen, A. (1997). Dynamic capabilities and strategic management. Strategic Management Journal, 18(7), 509–533.
  5. Teece, D.J. (2007). Explicating dynamic capabilities: The nature and microfoundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance. Strategic Management Journal, 28(13), 1319–1350.
  6. Teece, D.J. (2014). A dynamic capabilities-based entrepreneurial theory of the multinational enterprise. Journal of International Business Studies, 45(1), 8–37.

Transport Economics Knowledge Hub seminar in July

The Ministry of Transport and Transport Economics Knowledge Hub invite you to:

Revise urban transport’s role: To obtain competitive urban land markets, and ensure homes are close to jobs, goods, services, and amenities
by Chris Parker, Chief Economist, Auckland Council
Opportunities and barriers in the way New Zealand develops its roading and transport networks, and ramifications for economic growth by Tom Simonson, Principal Regulatory Advisor, Local Government New Zealand
 
Time and date: 
12:00pm to 1:30pm, Monday 04 July 2016
Venue:  Ministry of Transport, Level 6, 89 The Terrace, Wellington
RSVP:  knowledgehub@transport.govt.nz (by Thursday 30 June 2016)  
Chris will be presenting from Auckland office. So people in Auckland are welcome to attend the seminar at Auckland office (Address: Level 6, Tower Centre, 45 Queen Street, Auckland)

April 2016 AI (#55) includes interviews with Sherwin and Crampton

Asymmetric Info Issue 55 v2 5 April 2016

Contents:

  • Editorial
  • An Interview with Murray Sherwin (by Grant Scobie)
  • The ‘Five Minute Interview’ (Eric Crampton)
  • Treasury’s Living Standards Framework (by Bryce Wilkinson)
  • Treasury’s Living Standards Framework – Response to Bryce Wilkinson (by Girol Karacaoglu)
  • Blogwatch (by Paul Walker)
  • (Motu) Residential Assimilation of Migrants (by Dave Maré, Jacques Poot and Ceridwyn Roberts)
  • (Motu) Cyclical changes in Workforce Skill and Firm Productivity Measures (by David Maré, Dean Hyslop and Richard Fabling)
  • (Stats New Zealand) New measures of inflation: Introducing the Household Living-costs Price Indexes (HLPIs) (by Alan Bentley)
  • NEW MEMBERS (January, February and early March 2016)
  • Report from GEN
  • Research in Progress (Reserve Bank of New Zealand)

Transport Economics Knowledge Hub seminar in May (2)

The Ministry of Transport and Transport Economics Knowledge Hub invite you to:

 

Transport infrastructure: decision-making under uncertainty:

The real options approach

 

Abstract

Many transport investments face uncertainty, especially on the demand side. Traditional analysis is inadequate and can result in either severe congestion or white elephants like “The Bridge to Nowhere”. Better techniques have emerged, exploiting the value of flexibility and strategic decision making – the real options approach.

This presentation follows the shorter presentation provided by David Greig in March 2016. An expert in real options, David Campbell from the Australian economic consulting firm ACIL Allen, will share his experience from applying the approach in the transport (road, rail and ports), research, health, defence, water, drought, and climate change contexts.

Time and date:                  12pm to 1pm, Thursday, 12 May 2016

Venue:                               Ministry of Transport, Level 6, 89 The Terrace, Wellington

RSVP:                               Helen Huang,  h.huang@transport.govt.nz (by Wednesday, 11 May, 2016)

David Campbell is a Sydney-based Senior Associate of ACIL Allen, and was one of the founders of ACIL Tasman Pty Ltd, one of the two predecessor companies to ACIL Allen. David has many years of experience advising clients in relation to policy and investment strategy in areas involving high levels of uncertainty.

This has included pioneering applications of real options methods – that focus on dealing appropriately with the value of strategy flexibility and the value of information in guiding the development of adaptive investment strategies that offer greater value by limiting downside risk and securing access to upside possibilities.

Transport Economics Knowledge Hub seminar in May

The Ministry of Transport and Transport Economics Knowledge Hub invite you to attend a seminar that will present on three topics:

 Treasury’s new Cost Benefit Analysis guide by Dieter Katz, The Treasury

The Economic Evaluation Manual by Graeme Belliss, New Zealand Transport Agency

The role of regulatory impact analysis (RIA) in policy analysis, advice, and political decision-making by Ben Temple, The Treasury

Time and date:                  12:00pm to 1:30pm, Tuesday 03 May 2016

Venue:                                 Ministry of Transport, Level 6, 89 The Terrace, Wellington

RSVP:                                    knowledgehub@transport.govt.nz (by Friday 29 April 2016)