Well Hello!Its been a long time, OffWorkEconomist. I’ve been busy – its been a busy couple of years. I’m back now. And I’ve got things to say!2016 will be the strategic year – lets focus on strategic direction issues: what’s happening, where’s it going and why or why not should…
International Transmission Mechanism and Tourism
I’ve started a new job! I’m now a Principal Analyst within the Sector Performance team within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). What a rush! This has been my third week and I feel like I’m starting to get my feet under the table and hang of the…
And on a sadder note…
Bit unhappy today World. One of my all time favourite rockers died on the 21 April 2013. As a 16 year old, I and some mates jumped the fence at the 1988 Brisbane Ekka Show to see her and the Divinyls play live.Rock on Chrissy Amphlett
Thinking about Regions: Updated with R Code
Regional Industry Employment The blogs have been slow this month – sorry people. Things have been quite busy in my neck of the woods. One of the things I am looking at at the moment though are three employment related questions based on Statistics New Zealand’s Business Demographics data: What…
Craft Beer Explosion in a Mature Dull Beer Market
Regular readers of New Zealand economic blogs don’t have to go very far to be convinced of the attraction between Economists and beer, as the number of post on Eric Crampton and Seamus Hogan’s blog Offsetting Behaviour website can attest. Besides the obvious, what makes beer so interesting is the extraordinary proliferation of…
Networked Societies and Growth in Cities
I am currently training for the Graperide so have started putting in some hours on my bike. To pass the time in the saddle, I’ve been listening to BBC’s “Analysis” podcasts, today’s listenings including Professor Manuel Castells’ interview on Alternative Economic Cultures.Professor Castell identifies the internet as the vehicle for new(ish) global and collective collaborations…
Productivity – at what cost?
I attended the Government Economics Network Annual Conference yesterday. Top marks to all the speakers who presented some fascinating talks on recent changes to the UK welfare system (Trevor Huddleston), new approaches to modelling household behaviour (Martin Weale), and a rolicking-good discussion of the persistent costs for individuals of unemployment spells…
It’s not you, it’s me!
Dear Blog, It’s not you, it’s me. This time apart, this lack of posting is nothing you’ve done. I still love you!But over this last week and a bit, I feel a gap has grown between us. I’m spending more time with my wife – my job, that I have…
Real Markets and Money Markets
Last year, well before the US presidential election, I was in a bar having a heated conversation with some guy who had been listening to too much Tea Party rhetoric, although he wasn’t aware of its origins at the time. From points 20, 21, 31, 32 cited in that link, part…
Price Elasticity and New Zealand Retail Sales
Statistics New Zealand, with their recent Retail Statistics released a bit of a bombshell: not only was an decline in retail trade unexpected, but things which (used to) NEVER fall – like supermarket and grocery store sales – declined. The thing about supermarket and groceries is that, since everyone needs to…
Quantum theory and train passengers
I read some where that quantum theory wasn’t a theory about the behaviour of the very small, it was a theory about the behaviour of the isolated. The argument goes that even you, if separated from other particles to interact with would start displaying quantum theory properties. It just so…
Unemployment and the Business Cycle
There’s been a lot of recent discussion about Statistics New Zealand’s latest Household Labour Force Statistics (HLFS) which are used to define ‘the’ unemployment rate. Quite correctly, there has been an outcry over how the unemployment rate is the highest its been in 13 years, mainly from a decrease in…
Capital Markets and Economic Regulation
Tim Brown’s, head of Infratil’s “Capital Markets and Economic Regulation” area, thought provoking article in the Dominion Post’s 24 October 2012 got me thinking about economic investment. Tim’s thesis was New Zealand companies reinvest too little of their current profit, to the detriment of theirs – and ultimately New Zealand’s…
Television and Duopoly Economics
I love duopolies: two or more companies fighting it out in an economic arena. There’s a couple of different models out there to describe the outcome of duopoly behaviour.One theory (Cournot duopolies) says that the companies will fight it out, matching business models and competing until both or all are “the same”. At the end of the day, each…
The Off Work Economist
Good Morning World!My name’s James Hogan, and I’m a practising Economist in a New Zealand Government department. Importantly, I’m on holiday. So, in between building websites, cleaning the house, and landscaping the section, I’ve got some time to read and keep abreast of the News of the Day. And like…