Christoph Schumacher

Professor Christoph Schumacher

Adjunct Senior Fellow

Christoph is a Professor of Innovation and Economics at Massey University, the Director of the Knowledge Exchange Hub (Massey University's big data-driven research centre) and the ambassador for Australia and New Zealand of the Kronberg Academy (Germany).

He is the co-creator of GDPLive (gdplive.net), the world's first real-time GDP tracker powered by artificial intelligence, and the New Zealand Shared Prosperity Index (sharedprosperity.co.nz); a product of Christoph's interest in identifying and understanding critical social and economic issues through machine-learning driven big data analytics.

Christoph is a microeconomist interested in theoretical and experimental game theory. His other research fields are mathematical economics, machine learning, health and sports economics. Christoph has published in top international journals such as the Journal of Health Economics, Applied Economics, the European Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Industrial Economics and Economics Letters, and in national outlets such as the NBR, the New Zealand Herald and the Listener. He appears regularly on national radio and has been the resident economist on TV3's current affair program Three60.

Christoph has been an advisor to the Auckland District Health Board, the Auckland Council and the New Zealand Racing Board and has produced numerous reports for local governments and businesses. He is the recipient of the Jan Whitwell Memorial Prize by the New Zealand Association of Economists and the lead researcher in the KPMG Financial Institutions Performance Survey.

Christoph holds under, and post graduate degrees in Engineering (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany) and International Business (The University of Auckland) as well as a PhD in Economics (game theory, Massey University) and recently completed a certificate in Big Data and Social Analytics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA.

Recent Work

gdplive

GDPLive - How are we tracking?

Waiting for the release of the official Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures has become more exciting since I launched GDPLive. It is like watching the lotto draw when the numbers drop, and you keep checking your ticket. Read more

Professor Christoph Schumacher
Insights Newsletter
13 October, 2023
Grant Robertson Wellbeing Budget 2023 SQ

What does Govt being ‘more of a friend than foe’ to RBNZ mean?

In my last column, I used a puzzling proverb to show that we can’t simultaneously have low inflation and cheap money. Today, I use the equally puzzling comment made by Adrian Orr in the OCR announcement that the government is ‘more of a friend than foe’ to explore the relationship between our government and the Reserve Bank. Read more

Professor Christoph Schumacher
National Business Review
6 June, 2023
Cash

When the OCR misses the mark

Annual inflation has fallen from 7.2% in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 6.7% in the first quarter of 2023. On the surface, this is good news. Read more

Professor Christoph Schumacher
Insights Newsletter
28 April, 2023
Arthur Okun sq

How Okun’s Law affects New Zealand

So much has happened in the past few weeks that I am spoiled for choice of topics to discuss. In the US, two banks collapsed, causing the biggest bank failures since the GFC. Read more

Professor Christoph Schumacher
National Business Review
10 April, 2023
crack in road

The economic cost of NZ’s natural disasters

What a difference a few weeks make. At the beginning of the year, I thought the economy would pick up momentum, inflation would soon come down, and polling trends would continue, possibly leading to a change of government come election time. Read more

Professor Christoph Schumacher
National Business Review
13 March, 2023
inflation square

Inflation a matter of hope and wait

The December 2022 inflation figures are out, and the news is not particularly good. While most bank economists expected annual inflation to fall in Q4, it remained at 7.2%, so inflation has plateaued rather than decreased. Read more

Professor Christoph Schumacher
National Business Review
13 February, 2023
Inflation Cost of Living web Resized square

Reflections on 2022

It is the time of the year when people reflect on the past year and wonder what the new year will have in store. So let’s take stock of 2022. Read more

Professor Christoph Schumacher
National Business Review
16 January, 2023
Cash

Making sense of the OCR

On Wednesday, the Reserve Bank increased the Official Cash Rate (OCR) by 0.75 percentage points (pp) to 4.25%. This isn’t surprising given that inflation has reached a 30-year high of 7.2%, but is it too little too late? Read more

Professor Christoph Schumacher
National Business Review
28 November, 2022
Christoph Schumacher Copy

Podcast: Christoph Schumacher on the OCR, Taylor Rule and GDP Live

Oliver Hartwich chats with Christoph Schumacher about the Official Cash Rate, inflation, the Taylor Rule, and the new GDP Live tool that provides real-time New Zealand GDP tracking. To help fund the incredible GDP Live tracker contact Christoph at c.schumacher@massey.ac.nz. Read more

Dr Oliver Hartwich
Professor Christoph Schumacher
Podcast
15 November, 2022
Sean Plunket website

Christoph Schumacher on NZ's OCR

Massey Uni Economist, and Initiative Adjunct Senior Fellow, Christoph Schumacher chats with Sean Plunket on New Zealand's official cash rate (OCR). Christoph is the co-creator of GDPLive (gdplive.net), the world's first real-time GDP tracker powered by artificial intelligence. Read more

Professor Christoph Schumacher
The Platform
14 November, 2022
gdplivelogo.05f51432 BLK

Real-time Inflation and Optimal OCR Tracker launch

Inflation is the hottest topic in economics right now, with economic powerhouses like the US, Germany or UK about to hit (or have already reached) double figures. Even our once-called ‘rock-solid’ economy is trending in this direction, yet our reserve bank seems reluctant to take the necessary monetary policy measures. Read more

Professor Christoph Schumacher
Insights Newsletter
11 November, 2022

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