Arthur Grimes
Arthur Grimes is amongst the most influential of New Zealand’s economists, having made outstanding contributions to economic policy, academic research, and the economics profession over more than four decades. It is rare to find an economist who has combined such sustained excellence in public policy, senior leadership in the private sector, and internationally recognised scholarship.
His academic record is exceptional. Arthur completed an Honours degree at the University of Waikato before undertaking both an MSc and a PhD at the London School of Economics. During his doctoral studies he was awarded the Ely Devons Prize, the Robert McKenzie Prize, and the Sayers Prize in Monetary Economics, reflecting the outstanding quality of his work at an early stage of his career.
Arthur’s influence on New Zealand’s economic policy has been profound and enduring. He served as Chief Economist at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand before becoming Chairman of the Reserve Bank from 2003 to 2013. He subsequently served on the Board of the Financial Markets Authority from 2011 to 2017. Throughout his career he has also contributed to numerous government advisory bodies, including as Chair of the Postal Network Access Committee and as a member of official taskforces covering taxation, urban planning, infrastructure, and superannuation.
Perhaps Arthur’s most significant contribution to public policy has been his pioneering work on inflation targeting. In 2018, US National Public Radio’s Planet Money described him as “one of the most important economists in the world” for his role in developing this framework. Inflation targeting has since become the dominant approach to monetary policy internationally, with more than forty central banks, including the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, adopting variants of the framework that Arthur helped to formulate. Few New Zealand economists have had such a direct and lasting influence on the practice of economic policy around the world.
Alongside his public policy career, Arthur has held a number of senior leadership roles in the private sector. He served as Chief Economist at the National Bank of New Zealand, Chief Executive of Southpac Investment Management, and Chair of the Hugo Group. During his leadership of Southpac, the firm became the first New Zealand fund manager to adopt passive portfolio management, an approach that has since become standard practice across much of the investment management industry.
Arthur has simultaneously maintained an academic career of exceptional distinction. His research has appeared in many of the world’s leading journals in economics, including the Journal of Economic Literature, the European Economic Review, the Scandinavian Journal of Economics, and the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. His work has also been widely published in leading journals across related disciplines, including Social Science & Medicine, Urban Studies, Regional Studies, and BMJ Open. His research spans monetary and fiscal policy, migration, urban economics, wellbeing, economic growth, and public policy, consistently combining theoretical insight with practical policy relevance.
His academic leadership has been equally impressive. Arthur served as Director of Victoria University’s Institute of Policy Studies from 1998 to 2002 before joining Motu Economic and Public Policy Research as a Senior Fellow. He has held appointments as Adjunct Professor of Economics at both the University of Auckland and the University of Waikato, before becoming Professor of Wellbeing and Public Policy in the School of Government at Victoria University of Wellington.
His research excellence has been recognised through numerous prestigious awards and appointments. He has been Principal Investigator on three Marsden Fund grants, was elected a Research Fellow of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, received the NZIER Economics Award, held the NZ–UK Link Visiting Professorship at the University of London, received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Waikato, and was subsequently appointed an Honorary Professor by the same institution.
Arthur’s contribution to the economics profession extends well beyond his own research and policy work. He has been a dedicated member of the New Zealand Association of Economists for over forty years, having joined in 1979. He served on the Association’s Council from 1987 to 1991 and again after 2011, was Co-Editor of New Zealand Economic Papers from 2015 to 2017, served as President from 2015 to 2017, and subsequently as Immediate Past President. He has supervised and mentored numerous Honours, Masters, and PhD students, and, apart from three years spent overseas, has attended every NZAE Conference since 1979. Internationally, he continues to contribute to the profession as co-convenor of the World Wellbeing Panel, bringing together leading experts on wellbeing from around the world.
Throughout his career, Arthur has demonstrated a rare ability to bridge the worlds of scholarship and policy. His work has consistently been characterised by intellectual rigour, originality, and practical relevance. Whether shaping monetary policy, advancing research at the international frontier, leading major institutions, or mentoring the next generation of economists, he has made contributions that have strengthened both New Zealand’s economic institutions and the discipline of economics itself.
Few New Zealand economists have combined such sustained achievement across public policy, academia, private sector leadership, and professional service. Arthur Grimes is a very worthy and distinguished Distinguished Fellow.
Dennis Wesselbaum
University of Otago
