Oliver is the Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative. Before joining the Initiative, he was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, the Chief Economist at Policy Exchange in London, and an advisor in the UK House of Lords. Oliver holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Business administration and a PhD in Law from Bochum University in Germany.
Oliver is available to comment on all of the Initiative’s research areas.
Submission: A New Zealand Income Insurance Scheme (2022)
Policy Essay: Effective and affordable – Why the ETS is sufficient to deal with the climate emergency (2020)
Research Note: The Unreserved Bank of New Zealand: Why unorthodox monetary policy needs boundaries (2019)
#localismNZ: Bringing power to the people (2019)
Submission: Future of Tax (2018)
Submission: Overseas Investment Amendment Bill (2018)
Scroll down to read the rest of Oliver's work.
Phone: +64 4 499 0790
Three bits of news from the world of finance and central banking this week: The Reserve Bank increased the cash rate by 50 basis points. A HSBC manager in Britain has been suspended for criticising climate-based financial regulations at a conference. Read more
Oliver Hartwich and Eric Crampton interview Foodstuffs North Island’s CEO Chris Quin and Independent Director Peter Schuyt about the Commerce Commission’s enquiry into the grocery retail sector. To listen to our latest podcasts, please subscribe to The New Zealand Initiative podcast on iTunes, Spotify or The Podcast App. Read more
Oliver Hartwich talks to Michael Laws, The Platform about housing in New Zealand. He comments on a range of issues including affordability, building costs and the supply of materials, local government, land supply and land zoning, and interest rates. Read more
Monetary policy always had an air of the mystical. The past is filled with fallen sages like Alan Greenspan, inflation-warriors like Paul Volcker and gurus like Milton Friedman. Read more
In conversation with Oliver Hartwich, Roger Partridge explains the findings from his new report ‘Reassessing the Regulators – The good, the bad, and the Commerce Commission’. To listen to our latest podcasts, please subscribe to The New Zealand Initiative podcast on iTunes, Spotify or The Podcast App. Read more
Yesterday, even with all the lights on in the debating chamber, the Minister of Finance sounded like he was whistling in the dark. Grant Robertson’s Budget was what we have come to expect from this government. Read more
Finland and Sweden intending to join Nato is not just a radical departure from decades of Nordic foreign policy, it also shows how the invasion of Ukraine has altered the political landscape in Europe - not just in Scandinavia. There was a time when many left-leaning politicians in Europe viewed everything related to defence and security alliances with suspicion. Read more
Chelsy Killick talks with Eric Crampton and Oliver Hartwich on the Government’s Emissions Reductions Plan and what it will mean for transport. To listen to our latest podcasts, please subscribe to The New Zealand Initiative podcast on iTunes, Spotify or The Podcast App. Read more
International junkets for public servants are not my cup of tea. But I will make an exception for the New Zealand Transport Agency, Waka Kotahi. Read more
Chelsy Killick talks to Oliver Hartwich about his new column in The Australian and what New Zealand should learn from Germany’s foreign policy mistakes. To listen to our latest podcasts, please subscribe to The New Zealand Initiative podcast on iTunes, Spotify or The Podcast App. Read more
As they say, it is better to learn from other people’s mistakes than to make them all yourself. It is one of those truisms so obviously correct it has been falsely attributed to at least a dozen people. Read more
Successful economies have low unemployment. However, these are no ordinary times, and New Zealand’s ultra-low unemployment rate of 3.2% should worry everyone. Read more
Let’s start with a quiz. Over the past 12 months, which of these currencies performed the worst against the US dollar: the Zimbabwe dollar, the Russian Rouble, or the Euro? Read more
The government’s Te Hurihanganui sketches a radically different version of education in New Zealand. But what is it based on? Read more
Several large companies recently received hefty government handouts to install new boilers and heaters. This was all under the guise of decarbonisation, using money earmarked for the country’s Covid recovery. Read more