REPORTS

On my last visit to New Zealand in 1999 I spoke as an outsider to a sceptical audience on how best to interpret the Treaty of Waitangi.1 I said that one of the great challenges facing a country formed by successive waves of immigrants is to put together disparate norms from rival cultures, each of which has its own distinctive legal understandings as to how the world does or should work. On that occasion I said that I would like to start from a neutral corner, and then proceeded to address several Roman law analogues to the question of prescriptive rights, largely on the basis that the great Roman authors were not influenced by the future events that unfolded in New Zealand. Read more

Home is where the money is is the third paper in a series that forms part of the New Zealand Institute’s initial research program on Creating an Ownership Society. This paper follows on from our first two papers, The wealth of a nation, and It’s not just about money. Read more

This lecture, Is There Unequal Bargaining Power in the Labour Market?, was delivered in Wellington on 2 August 2004 at the offices of Chapman Tripp Sheffield Young, Wellington. Read more

Like many countries, New Zealand has experienced a significant increase in family breakdown since the 1960s. Patricia Morgan finds that the family in New Zealand is now in a worse state than almost anywhere else. Read more

Nobody would wish to defend corporate irresponsibility or suggest that businesses should behave antisocially. It is little wonder therefore that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a popular notion. Read more

One problem in any technical field is that some technical terms sound like ordinary language, and people outside the field, familiar with their ordinary meaning, mistakenly assume they understand them. Consider all the people who think they really understand the theory of relativity - except for the details. Read more

In this modern age of global commerce, it seems odd that I have been asked to address the topic 'In defence of the corporation'. Even the most ardent critic of the corporation would not take the position that the corporate form should be dismissed as an ill-conceived venture of modernity so that it would be for the better to be rid of it and return to being a nation of artisans. Read more

Martin Wolf is associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2000 for services to financial journalism. Read more

It is my pleasure to welcome you to what I am certain will be a stimulating address by Richard Epstein, professor of law at the University of Chicago and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. This is professor Epstein’s fourth visit to New Zealand. Read more

Since 1994 the Fiscal Responsibility Act has been a key element of New Zealand’s framework for sustaining fiscal surpluses and reducing net indebtedness. Bryce Wilkinson reviews New Zealand’s experience with the Act, identifies its strengths and weaknesses, and suggests improvements. Read more

It’s not just about the money is the second paper in a series that forms part of the New Zealand Institute’s initial research program on Creating an Ownership Society. This paper follows on from our first paper – The wealth of a nation – which was released in July. Read more

Professor Epstein is on his fourth visit to New Zealand. He has been enormously generous in helping people in this country with the many topics he has worked on. Read more

There is a widely held view that businesses must adopt a new conception of their mission and conduct, by endorsing and implementing ‘corporate social responsibility’. David Henderson argues that now, as in the past, the primary role of business is to act as a vehicle for economic progress. Read more

The wealth of a nation is the first paper in a series that forms part of the New Zealand Institute's initial research program on Creating an Ownership Society. Read more

There are substantial economic gains to be made from countries getting ‘easy’ policy decisions right. Societies become impoverished when they do not accept the basic principles of freedom and competition. Read more