Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wpx84 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-26T22:11:24.485Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Third Way Economic Management in New Zealand

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Paul Dalziel*
Affiliation:
Lincoln University

Abstract

The article explains why a ‘Third Way’ for economic management has become important in New Zealand. Economic growth fell sharply compared to Australia after 1984, due to a slow-down in New Zealand’s labour productivity growth after 1991. The paper argues this was partially the result of a neglected aspect of economic management during the 1984–94 decade of economic reform: fostering domestic physical capital formation. The third way differs from both the approach adopted prior to 1984 and the approach adopted during New Zealand’s reforms, based on government involvement, but not direct intervention, in industry and regional development.

Type
Meeting Report
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This paper is based on invited presentations to the New Zealand Treasury in Wellington on 14 November 2000, to a conference on the Third Way at the Centre for Applied Economic Research at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, 12–13 July 2001, and to a seminar organised by the Structural Issues Team of HM Treasury in London on 23 November 2001. I am grateful to participants on all occasions for helpful comments and suggestions, and I thank my former colleagues in the Department of Economics at the University of Canterbury, and Professor Jonathan Boston for many stimulating discussions on the topic. I am particularly grateful to John Nevile and an anonymous referee for insightful observations that have improved the clarity of the arguments in this paper. The usual caveats apply.

References

Arestis, P., Sawyer, M. (2001) The Economics of the Third Way. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Boston, J., Dalziel, P., St. John, S. (2000) Redesigning the Welfare State in New Zealand. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Conway, P., Orr, A. (2000) ‘The process of economic growth in New Zealand’. Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, 63(1), pp. 420.Google Scholar
Dalziel, P. (1996) ‘The relevance of the Keynesian multiplier process after sixty years’. History of Economics Review, 25, pp. 221231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalziel, P. (2001) ‘Third way economics: What might this mean in New Zealand?’ Chapter 3 in Eichbaum, C. and Harris, P. (Eds) The New Politics: A Third Way for New Zealand. Palmerston North: Dunmore Press, 1999. Reprinted as Chapter 6 in A. Giddens (Ed) The Global Third Way Debate. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Dalziel, P. (2001) ‘New Zealand’s Economic Reforms: An Assessment’. Review of Political Economy, 14(1), pp. 3146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalziel, P., Lattimore, R. (2001) The New Zealand Macroeconomy: A Briefing on the Reforms and Their Legacy. 4th Ed. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
De Long, J.B., Summers, L.H. (1991) ‘Equipment investment and economic growth’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 106, pp. 445502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duncan, I., Bollard, A. (1992) Corporatization and Privatization: Lessons from New Zealand. Auckland: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Easton, B. (1997) In Stormy Seas: The Post-War New Zealand Economy. Dunedin: University of Otago Press.Google Scholar
Eichbaum, C. and Harris, P. (Eds) (1999) The New Politics: A Third Way for New Zealand. Palmerston North: Dunmore Press.Google Scholar
ESC Secretariat (1984) A Briefing on the New Zealand Economy. Wellington: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Evans, L. (1998) ‘The theory and practice of privatisation’. New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation, Victoria University of Wellington, August.Google Scholar
Evans, L., Grimes, A., Wilkinson, B. with Teece, D. (1996) ‘Economic reform in New Zealand 1984–95: The pursuit of efficiency’, Journal of Economic Literature, 34(4), pp. 18561902.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (2000) The Third Way and its Critics. Cambridge, Polity Press.Google Scholar
Giddens, A. (Ed) (2001) The Global Third Way Debate. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Gregory, R.G. (2000) ‘Labour market outcomes in the UK, NZ, Australia and the US: Observations on the impact of labour market and economic reforms’; In Bell, S. (Ed) The Unemployment Crisis: Which Way Out? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Holland, M. and Boston, J. (Eds) (1990) The Fourth Labour Government: Politics and Policy in New Zealand. 2nd Edition. Auckland: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lawrence, D., Diewert, E. (1999) ‘Measuring New Zealand’s Productivity’. Treasury Working Paper No. 99/5. Wellington: New Zealand Treasury.Google Scholar
Massey, P. (1995) New Zealand: Market Liberalization in a Developed Economy. London: St Martins Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministry of Economic Development (2000) Annual Report.Google Scholar
Muldoon, R. (1985) The New Zealand Economy: A Personal View. Auckland: Endeavour Press.Google Scholar