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.
Phone: +64 4 499 0790
Once upon a time, Boris Johnson scored an emphatic election victory. It delivered him an 80-seat majority in the House of Commons, and it was won on a promise: To sort out Brexit. Read more
New Zealanders will elect a new Parliament on Saturday, but the election result is a foregone conclusion. Unless all pollsters have been consistently wrong for the past months, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern can prepare for a second term in office. Read more
It took New Zealand to disprove the entire body of political science. For millennia, political philosophy was thought to be about the dual question of who rules and for what purpose. Read more
Saturday marked the 30th anniversary of Germany’s (second) unification. The changes were dramatic for the country itself, perhaps most visibly symbolised when the seat of government shifted from Bonn to Berlin. Read more
For political tragics, Wednesday was a feast day. First, the US Presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Read more
Too much money is spent on education. New Zealand invests billions into schooling its children. Read more
Few political decisions have weakened the European Union as much as Angela Merkel’s opening of her country’s borders in 2015. Back then, the German Chancellor unilaterally decided to allow millions of refugees stranded in Hungary to move into the bloc, triggering severe tensions between EU members. Read more
Dear minister, Let’s cut to the chase: New Zealand’s economy is in a perilous state. The covid-19 crisis is a one-in-100-year shock. Read more
In this week’s New Zealand Initiative podcast, a scheduled release of the second quarter GDP statistics revealed the country’s economy dropped 12%, rather than the feared 16%. But coupled with the government’s money printing plans, the true state of the New Zealand economy is tough to judge at this point. Read more
Judging by the usual economic indicators, you would never guess New Zealand is in a severe crisis. This tells us something about the economic and monetary system we inhabit. Read more
Labour finally announced some election policies this week: a new public holiday, a cap on bank fees and a new top rate of income tax. It is easy to point out what all these measures have in common. Read more
Politicians like shovelling out money for shovel-ready projects. But let’s call a spade a spade: When push comes to shovel, it does not matter if projects are ready. Read more
The Covid-19 crisis can be summed up in one word: uncertainty. Practically everything about this crisis is uncertain: whether there will be a vaccine; whether the virus will mutate and how; the true fatality rate; and the long-term health damage in survivors. Read more
In this week’s New Zealand Initiative podcast, a second lockdown in the country’s largest city continues. The question of what might be happening to businesses as a consequence, however, is hard to answer. Read more
Walking around central Wellington, more shops are boarded up. On Lambton Quay, two bank branches recently disappeared. Read more