James did an excellent post discussing tax issues recently. After this, he obtained a copy of the book, and dug out the three ways that Rob Salmond had noted GST was regressive. It is good to see Rob put some thought into it and found measurable reasons why regressivity exists – but I also need …
Category Archive: New Zealand Economics
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2012/04/04/on-gst-and-regressivity/
Apr 03 2012
Prices, rents, and costs
The NBR has pointed to an article to the Economist that shows house price to income and house price to rent ratios – pointing out that the very high house price to rent ratio can be used as an indicator that the return on housing is very low/house prices are heavily overvalued. Now one criticism …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2012/04/03/prices-rents-and-costs/
Mar 30 2012
The cost of transition
In an article on the Herald Brian Fallow, with the aid of Andrew Coleman, takes on the unaffordable nature of superannuation at present. Essentially the argument boils down to two points: The implied transfer from future generations to current generations is equitable given fair assumptions of technological and population growth. A save as you go …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2012/03/30/the-cost-of-transition/
Mar 29 2012
Taxing the poor to help the rich?
Rob Salmond has written a post claiming that New Zealand’s tax system is unfair on poor people and generally inefficient. His evidence boils down to this chart of tax rates across incomes: Rob’s an expert on tax systems so I trust that the figure is accurate, but there is so much it doesn’t say that …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2012/03/29/taxing-the-poor-to-help-the-rich/
Mar 22 2012
When looking at NZ growth today …
I suggest sticking the September and December quarters together – and talking about the second half of 2011, including the RWC. A lot of the “upside” surprise in September and the “downside” surprise in December was due to significant variability in stocks – part of which was due to the Rugby World Cup. Adding the …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2012/03/22/when-looking-at-nz-growth-today/
Mar 15 2012
A point on consistency: Finland v NZ
After saying I thought the general goal of catching other countries was a bit silly I suddenly clicked onto another point – the implied inconsistency of the policies being suggested by Labour. Look, I don’t want to beat up on Labour specifically – as I think all parties are guilty of this – they just …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2012/03/15/a-point-on-consistency-finland-v-nz/
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