The beach, the monkey and rationality

Gareth MorganEconomics, Environment

One of the tenets of classical economics is that markets are rational (in other words, logical), that in the end if enough people participate, the outcome will be optimal. This assumption is often criticised and is why governments intervene via … Read More

Should we really ditch Kiwirail?

Geoff SimmonsEconomics

Yesterday, Kiwirail finally spoke out against Treasury’s advice that they should be scrapped. Until now, the public discussion has been limited to a bizarre joust between Steven Joyce, Bill English and Treasury on one side, with Mainfreight on the other … Read More

Uber vs the Taxis

Geoff SimmonsEconomics

Regulation is important, but unless it is nimble and well managed it can become a bigger problem than whatever it was intended to solve. We’ve seen one example of that in with minimum parking requirements, but another, much bigger regulatory … Read More