Bryce is a Senior Fellow at The New Zealand Initiative, and also the Director of the Wellington-based economic consultancy firm Capital Economics. Prior to setting this up in 1997 he was a Director of, and shareholder in, First NZ Capital. Before moving into investment banking in 1985, he worked in the New Zealand Treasury, reaching the position of Director. Bryce holds a PhD in economics from the University of Canterbury and was a Harkness Fellow at Harvard University. He is a Fellow of the Law and Economics Association of New Zealand.
Bryce is available for comment on fiscal issues, our poverty, inequality and welfare research. He also has a strong background in public policy analysis including monetary policy, capital markets research and microeconomic advisory work.
Latest reports:
Illusions of History: How misunderstanding the past jeopardises our future (2021)
Policy Point: Is climate change a key risk to global financial stability? (2020)
Roadmap for Recovery: Briefing to the Incoming Government (2020)
Pharmac: The right prescription? (2020)
Research Note: Doing whatever it takes with someone else’s money (2020)
Policy Point: FDI: Unjustified Urgency (2020)
Research Note: Deficit spending in a crisis: why there is no such thing as a free lunch (2020)
Research Note: Quantifying the wellbeing costs of Covid-19 (2020)
Research Note: How bad might the lockdown be for jobs and income? (2020)
Work in Progress: Why Fair Pay Agreements would be bad for labour (2019)
Scroll down to read the rest of Bryce's work.
Phone: +64 4 472 5986
It is easy to squander taxpayers’ money if you are a central bank. The losses amount to a few thousand dollars per household, but hardly anyone is aware of it. Read more
Bryce Wilkinson and Leonard Hong discuss their latest report "Walking the path to the next global financial crisis" and the implications for New Zealand. To listen to our latest podcasts, please subscribe to The New Zealand Initiative podcast on iTunes, Spotify or The Podcast App. Read more
Bryce Wilkinson discusses his report "Walking the path to the next global financial crisis" with Lloyd Burr on Magic Talk. He talks about the implications for New Zealand. Read more
The world’s major economies are walking into the next global financial crisis. Moreover, their authorities do not seem willing to change direction. Read more
New Zealand must prepare for next global financial crisis New Zealand’s economy suffered less damage from the pandemic than analysts expected. But new research warns, however, that just as we are emerging from the COVID-19, a new crisis is already on the horizon. Read more
As the world is slowly emerging out of Covid-19, the next big crisis may already appear on the horizon. After bold fiscal and monetary packages to cushion the blow of the pandemic, inflation, stagflation and asset market disruption are dangers for the world economy. Read more
A long-standing mate stopped me in the street last week. He asked me if I was livid about property rights. Read more
The government’s Budgets in 2020 and 2021 arguably breached the Public Finance Act 1989. This is a serious concern. Read more
Dr Bryce Wilkinson and Emeritus Professor Gary Hawke join Ben Craven to discuss Bryce’s latest report, The Illusions of History: How misunderstanding the past jeopardises our future. The trio look at some of the prevailing myths of New Zealand’s economic history, and explain the risks of basing contemporary public policy on inaccurate stories of our past. Read more
Parliament, not government, passes legislation. Legislation is law. Read more
Who thinks that the current Labour government should seek to emulate the “great traditions” of the 1935 Labour government? At least one person thinks it should, and his opinion counts. Read more
Mike Hosking reviews and reads out part of Bryce Wilkinson's article (published in the NZ Herald) "How past illusions and future follies mar Grant Robertson's economic strategy." Hosking calls it today's "must read". In the article on his new report "Illusions of History: How misunderstanding the past jeopardises our future", Bryce warns that the government's economic policy settings risk a repeat of past mistakes. Read more
In his Budget speech last year, Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson, outlined the government’s policy aspirations. He saw Labour as being able to take decisions that “will define the lives and livelihoods of many people for years to come”. Read more
Closing his 2020 Budget speech, Finance Minister Grant Robertson looked back to the First and Fourth Labour governments for lessons on how to tackle New Zealand’s current economic challenges. His first history lesson was that the way forward today lay in the “great traditions of the First Labour Government” (1935–49) that “rebuilt New Zealand after the Great Depression” under Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage. Read more
Wellington (Tuesday, 21 September 2021) – The 2.8 percent jump in GDP in the June quarter 2021 does not mean that the government’s economic strategy is sound. In fact, it is dangerous wishful thinking based on a false reading of history, according to a new research report from The New Zealand Initiative. Read more