Bryce is a Senior Fellow at The New Zealand Initiative and the Director of the Wellington-based economic consultancy firm Capital Economics.
Prior to setting up his consultancy in 1997, he was director, 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.
Phone: +64 4 499 0790
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
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
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
The recent passing of Sir Michael Cullen, the former Minister of Finance, has been widely covered. The Super Fund, KiwiSaver and “Working for Families” are among Sir Michael’s lasting contributions to New Zealand - whether we like them or not. Read more
We seem to be living in a time of shameless posturing about caring for ‘our’ wellbeing by the government, and too many government agencies to list. The posturing reminds me of the saying - in the context of runs on a bank - that if a bank has to proclaim its virtue, it has already lost it. Read more
What happens to even the best juggler when ball after ball is added to his load? Sooner or later, collapse is inevitable. Read more
In my book, governments that do not publish a competent cost-benefit assessment justifying their spending and regulatory proposals do not take community wellbeing seriously.(Only if the wellbeing benefits plausibly exceed the costs is the policy likely to benefit the public.) The absence of such an assessment is now common. It suggests that a measure is being imposed on the public for partisan or elitist, paternalistic reasons. Read more
A news item this week reported the Minister of Health was “enormously frustrated”. We can think of quite a few in the private sector who know that feeling. Read more
The government’s announcement on Sunday of subsidies for electric vehicles did not make any case that the benefits to the public would plausibly exceed the costs. To fail to demonstrate positive net benefits is to fail to make a public wellbeing case for the measure. Read more
Matt Burgess, Eric Crampton, Oliver Hartwich and Bryce Wilkinson discuss the Government’s new feebate scheme. Will it help to cut emissions? Read more
Last week’s government budget reinforced the sense of fiscal fantasy that arises when one contemplates the unprecedented deficit spending funded by central bank credit creation occurring here and elsewhere. The government plans to borrow around $30 billion net in the coming fiscal year. Read more
Too many New Zealanders demand and expect too much from Government. One result is a never-ending cycle of disappointment and fruitless exhortation. Read more
Currently, every house auction is a contest between competing bidders. The auction confronts each bidder with the last price bid. Read more
In this short podcast, Senior Fellow Dr Bryce Wilkinson outlines the Government's review into Pharmac. He says the review will focus on how Pharmac performs against its current objectives (and if there could be any improvements), and whether Pharmac's objectives maximise its potential to help improve health outcomes for all New Zealanders. Read more
On Tuesday morning, 23 March 2021, the Government announced a set of housing policies that, among other things would substantially change the tax treatment of interest payments on residential investment properties. The changes to tax policy are substantial. Read more