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 the 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
A new publication about Jacinda Ardern is hardly remarkable these days. The Prime Minister’s global celebrity status has created a small avalanche of books and magazine covers. Read more
The Covid-19 crisis has quickly evolved from a health issue into an economic threat. The science was largely clear about what should be done to combat a pandemic, although historians will be the judge of those decisions, but there are plenty of competing ideas now about how to protect the economy after a pandemic. Read more
To understand the mindset of European elites, it is worth going back to the words of the founding godfather or European integration, Jean Monnet: “Europe will be forged in crises and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises." Monnet’s spirit of integration was alive in last week’s proposal to create a €750 billion fund to deal with the fallout of the coronavirus crisis. It is a gutsy move which pushes European fiscal integration to a new level. Read more
As we all navigate our way through this crisis, we are in uncharted territory. We cannot base our actions on experience because no-one has ever lived through a scenario like this. Read more
It was in 1986 when Paul Keating, then Australia’s Treasurer, made a famous remark: “If this Government cannot get the adjustment, get manufacturing going again, and keep moderate wage outcomes and a sensible economic policy, then Australia is basically done for,” Keating warned on the John Laws radio programme. “We will just end up being a third-rate economy, a banana republic.” In hindsight, Keating might have exaggerated. Read more
This week, opinion polls revealed that the Government is more popular than ever. On current figures, Labour could comfortably govern alone, the Prime Minister’s ratings are stratospheric, and nine in ten New Zealanders approve of the Government’s handling of the public health crisis. Read more
As New Zealand moves towards some new form of normality, the question becomes how to benefit from eliminating Covid-19 in New Zealand. It is worth looking at other countries’ specific problems. Take Germany’s football league, for example. Read more
Watching Budget 2020 delivered yesterday was a surreal experience. It was two things at once. Read more
As New Zealand moves towards the 2020 Budget, there is increasing talk about shovel-ready projects, stimulus and building the recovery. It all makes me nervous, probably because I am still spooked by another crisis in another country. Read more
It was an unusual document Angela Merkel just found in her in-tray. Written in French and on joint letterhead, 15 members of France’s Parliament penned an open letter to the German Chancellor. Read more
New Zealand has come out of lockdown to enter the purgatory of Three-dom (hopefully for only a couple of weeks). The path towards a new normal remains long and littered with challenges. Read more
How do you get an economy going again when entire industries are destroyed? How do you encourage private consumption when families are trying to make ends meet? Read more
The New Zealand Initiative’s Executive Director Oliver Hartwich presented to the Epidemic Response Committee today. He outlined his vision for New Zealand’s social, political and economic future. Read more
Is it 2010 again? Back then, crisis meeting followed crisis meeting to save Europe’s monetary union from collapse. Read more
The longer the acute Covid-19 crisis lasts, the more we hear that our economic world will not be the same after the crisis. Some things will of course change. Read more