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The University o Auckland
Business School
Owen G Glenn BuildingLevel 3, Case Room 325
12 Graton Road
Auckland
Applied Economics
WorkshopSaturday 21 July 2012
10am-5pm
Presented by
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Workshop programme
10am Introduction and welcome
10.05am Basil Sharp (Head o Department)
10.15am Rhema Vaithianathan (Director o CARE)10.30am Nick Tuey
11am Jonathan Eriksen
11.30am Ben Gerritsen
12pm Lunch
12.45pm Panel debate
2pm Ideation Challenge
3.30pm Aternoon tea
3.50pm Presentations and judging
4.20pm MADE
4.30pm Judges eedback
4.45pm Closing remarks
5pm Finish
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Introduction
The Applied Economics Workshop was born out o a conversation I had earlier this year about
student engagement with the economic issues aecting not only New Zealand as a whole but
also in our local communities.
In particular, we wondered i we could turn this into a two-way relationship. On one hand, wewanted to create the opportunity or students to apply their skills and knowledge to achieve
tangible outcomes in society. At the same time, students could learn practical research skills
outside the scope o their courses and be inspired by making a dierence however little or big
in their communities.
As the workshop has come to evolve through the past ew months, we have tried to bring together
a mix o social and commercial insights into the way economics operates in the real world. We also
wanted to create a platorm or like-minded students and proessionals to come together and share
their ideas.
Most importantly, however, we want participants to walk away rom this workshop with broadened
perspectives and a desire to contribute to positive change.
We hope you come to this workshop with an open mind and curiosity, and leave with more
questions than you started with.
I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to the team that has turned this idea into a reality
and to Rhema or her support and inspiration. And o course, to all the speakers, panellists and
judges who have taken the time out o their busy schedules to share their insights with us today.
Alice Wang
Applied Economics Workshop committee member
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About the workshop
This inaugural Applied Economics Workshop will take economics outside the classroom and show
participants how economics is being used to impact society.
Sponsored by the Department o Economics at The University o Auckland Business School, the
workshop is catered toward postgraduate and senior undergraduate students and eatures
prominent speakers rom diverse felds, a group activity or participants and a panel debate.
This is an excellent opportunity or students to learn more about the impact an economics-centered
career can have.
Speakers
Nick Tuey will speak on how we can correct New Zealands growing current account defcit
and simultaneously achieve a reasonable exchange rate. Jonathan Eriksen will talk about the impact o the Christchurch earthquake.
Ben Gerritsen will discuss how to pay or efcient road and rail networks in Auckland.
Panel debate topics
Whether or not a tax on capital gain is required in New Zealand.
The need or greater economic regulation given the current European economic crisis.
The impact that greater natural resource mining could have on New Zealands economic prosperity.
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Rhema Vaithianathan
Founder o MADE
r.vaithianathan@auckland.ac.nz
What inspired me to start MADE
I love economics. When I was 14, I readan economics textbook and I was sold on
economics. I loved how it combines systematic
and rigorous thinking with issues that I really
cared about. Ever since then I have had a love-
hate relationship with economics. The potential
or economics is immense. It has not reached
its potential.
Almost every medical researcher I have met
thinks their research will ultimately relieve painand suering. Yet economics oers so much
more in its ability or relieving human suering.
The 40 year dierence in lie expectancy
between Japan and Burkino Faso is economics,
not medical science.
Sadly, so ew economists think that their role is to
improve the world.
I dont blame economists nothing in our
current pedagogy has taught us how to changethe world. So we resort to writing reports that
no one reads, running regressions that no one
cares about and proving theorems that no one
understands. Some o us who are so moved
rage against the dying o the light. Yet it all
ends in ailure.
There has to be a better way.
A new feld is needed one that I call
translational economics. This is a feld that takesthe ideas o economics and implements it in a
real world setting to realise its ull potential.
Economists have shown that emale quotas
in city councils increase spending on public
goods that improve health. Why is a quota not
implemented in every city where an economist
received a copy o Econometrica in which that
article was published? Economists have shown
the long term eects o unemployment on mens
health and mortality make it a major healthrisk. Yet why do we not oer unemployed men
health support services to prevent these health
consequences? These are all simple, ideas that
could be implemented. In almost every economic
paper I have read is a gem o a tool, policy or
behaviour change that could make things better.
Few o them see the light o day.
Economists like me who try to change the world
get rustrated because we think that all we needto do is to point out that a policy was a good /
bad idea and it would get taken up / dropped.
I have come to realise that ailure to implement
good economic policy is not written in the stars,
but that the remedy lies in our hands. We must
think like Steve Jobs, who understood that the
trick to selling computers is not to think like
computer geeks but to think like designers.
Similarly, the way to implement economic
ideas is not like economic geeks but like social
designers. The changes we advocate must be so
natural, so beautiul and simple that they must
slot into peoples lives the way an iPhone slots
into their hand.
The idea behind MADE was to get young people
to start learning how to be change agents or
economic ideas. To change the world one needs
to understand the steps o change making how
to democratise ideas, how to lead, how to behumble, how to build a team.
As I oten tell my students, i you want to do
something about New Zealanders indierence
to poverty or the acceptance o corruption in
Arica you need to have learned how to change
small things. Learn how to walk beore you can
run. MADE oers students a chance to crawl.
My dream or students is that they make agreater impact on the world than I. Not in a
amous, Nobel prize winning, high-ying, jet-
setting kind o way. But in a humble, powerul
and eective way.
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Oliver Browne
Oliver Browne is
a recent graduate
o The Universityo Auckland with
honours degrees
in Arts and
Engineering. He
has since worked
in the Department
o Economics and
at Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
His research involves using simulation models
to assess policy interventions in energy andenvironmental markets. Oliver also tutors
the Universitys introductory courses in
microeconomics and macroeconomics.
In August, Oliver is leaving New Zealand to
study or a PhD in Economics at the University
o Chicago.
Proessor Craig Ellie
Craig has 14years experience
as a tax partner at
KPMG and eight
years experience
as a tax partner
at Chapman
Tripp. His areas o
expertise include
taxation consulting
in technology and electronic commerce;
international tax; restructuring; and cross-
border transactions. Craig has also been
involved in cross-border royalty, income tax and
GST issues.
His interests are in inormation, communication
and entertainment, as well as international tax,
services and manuacturing.
Jonathan Eriksen
Jonathan is the
Managing Director
o Eriksen &Associates Ltd, New
Zealand. He is a
registered actuary
and an employee
beneft consultant
with more than 25
years experience.
He specialises in superannuation and investment
advice to trustees and advises lie insurers and
investment managers on product design. He isalso a past president o New Zealand Society o
Actuaries and past chairman o Association o
Superannuation Funds o New Zealand.
Jonathan has had many years experience
advising corporate pension unds o multinationals
based in Europe, the United Kingdom and the
United States among others. He has personally
helped multinationals develop their pension
arrangements in Australia, Belgium, Japan, NewZealand, the UK and the US.
Proessor Prasanna Gai
Prasanna is an
academic adviser
on fnancial stability
matters or the Bank
o England and the
Bank o Canada. He
was senior adviser at
the Bank o England
responsible or
directing the banks
research work on systemic risk and editing the
Financial Stability Review.
Prasanna has also been a Fellow in Economics
at the Research School o Pacifc and Asian
Studies, Australian National University, a
visiting lecturer at the University o Oxord, anacademic visitor to the Bank o International
Settlements and the Reserve Bank o New
Zealand, and a visiting ellow at the Hong Kong
Institute o Monetary Research.
Speakers and judges
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Ben Gerritsen
Ben advises
public and private
sector clients oneconomic and
regulatory policy
in inrastructure
sectors, ocusing
on the interplay
between public
demands or
quality inrastructure services and private sector
investment opportunities. Ben also works on
competition policy cases, providing economicadvice and analysis o competition law claims.
Ben was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in
2006 and holds a Master o Public Policy rom
Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
Ben also holds bachelors degrees in Law and
Economics rom New Zealand.
Ben has recently managed projects in the
Philippines, Indonesia, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania,
South Arica, Nicaragua, Trinidad and Tobagoand New Zealand.
Proessor Tim Hazledine (Chair)
Tim joined the
Department o
Economics in 1992.
His specialist
teaching interests
are industrial
organisation, public
economics and
economic reorm
in developed
and transitional economics. He has taught at
Otago, Warwick, Balliol College Oxord, Queens
University in Ontario and at the University o
British Columbia. Tim also has experience in
government and consulting.
Over the 1991 to 1992 academic year he held theTD MacDonald Chair in Industrial Economics at
the Bureau o Competition Policy, in Ottawa. Tim
studied Industrial Organisation at Warwick.
James Ruddell
James is in his
fnal year o a BA/
LLB(Hons) degree.He is CEO o SavY, a
student charity that
runs fnancial literacy
workshops in high
schools. Last year,
110 workshops were
conducted in the
Auckland and Waikato regions. He was External
Relations Manager o SavY in 2011 and spoke
in this capacity at the Financial Literacy Summitorganised by the Retirement Commission. He
has also represented The University o Auckland
at international business case competitions and
debating tournaments.
Dr Deborah Shepherd
Deborah is a senior
lecturer in the
Business SchoolsDepartment o
Management
and International
Business. She
currently teaches in
the postgraduate
and executive
programmes in the areas o Organisation
Change and Development and Proessional
Development. Deborah is one o the acultydirectors o the Spark Vision to Business
Programme and was part o the ounding
team or The ICEHOUSE Business Growth
Programmes, where she continues to develop
and acilitate the Owner Manager Programme.
Deborah has worked as a researcher,
consultant, acilitator and experiential trainer
with a variety o large companies, SMEs and
not-or-proft organisations.
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Associate Proessor Susan St John
Susans research
and teaching
interests are
ocused on
public sector andretirement policy
issues, including
decumulation
o savings
and annuity
issues, tax and poverty issues, and applied
macroeconomics. Susan is a co-director o The
University o Aucklands Retirement Policy and
Research Centre.
She taught ull-time in the Department oEconomics rom 1981 to 2011, and is now
teaching part-time on public policy and
politics. Susan is a member o the editorial
board oPensionReforms and a ounding
member and economics adviser or the
Child Poverty Action Group. Susan was also
a member o the advisory board or the
2007 Retirement Commissions Review o
Retirement Policies in New Zealand.
Nick Tufey
Nick was appointed
as ASBs chie
economist in
January 2007.
Prior to joining
ASB, Nick was the
senior economist at
Westpac where heworked or seven
years, having spent
three years at the Reserve Bank beore that.
Much o his career has been spent analysing
and orecasting the New Zealand economy,
with a particular ocus on monetary policy
issues. Nick and his economics teams provide
regular commentary on developments in the
New Zealand economy through publications
and media interviews. Nick studied at theUniversity o Canterbury, graduating with a
Master o Commerce in Economics.
Dr Christine Woods
Christine is a
senior lecturer in
Entrepreneurship
and Innovation at
the Business School.In 2003 she was
instrumental, with
the Postgraduate
Students
Association, in
establishing the Spark Entrepreneurship
Challenge and is now the aculty director o
Sparks Vision to Business programme.
Christine is also part o the direction team or
The ICEHOUSE Business Growth Programmesand acilitates the Owner Manager Programme
and the Agribusiness programme. Her
consultancy work is with SMEs and amily
businesses in strategy development, learning
and business growth.
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Making a Dierence with EconomicsMADE was established in 2010 by Associate Proessor Rhema Vaithianathan in The University o
Auckland Business Schools Department o Economics.
It is open to senior economics students and recent alumni to help them learn how to take economics
rom the classroom and into the community.
MADE plays a similar role to teaching hospitals in medical schools. Economics is increasingly a
practical policy science, which can have a huge impact on peoples lives i correctly deployed. However,current pedagogy struggles to teach economic students these clinical methods. One reason is that
there are no natural teaching hospitals where economics students can come ace-to-ace with real
world economic problems. For a practicing economist, the client could be the whole economy or
smaller sub-sections such as industries, frms, groups o consumers, markets or communities.
Vision
MADE aims to empower economics students to make social change through the application o
economic principles and analysis.
Values Empowerment equipping students with tools to create change through continual learning and
reection.
Integrity maintaining respect or proessionalism, ethics and objectivity.
Ownership a persistent commitment to achieving tangible outcomes.
Partnership building synergy with teamwork and collaboration in the pursuit o common goals.
Passionately curious a willingness to take initiative and challenge the status quo.
Contact
For more inormation on how to get involved, please talk to one o the MADE representatives at the
Applied Economics Workshop or email auckland.made.nz@gmail.com
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Applied economics is economics in action, and applied economists are practical people. John
Maynard Keynes, the twentieth centurys most infuential economist, said we should be humbly
useul like dentists.
The Centre or Applied Research in Economics (CARE) was ounded in 2011 with this vision. Ourgoal is to improve the prosperity and welare o all sectors o New Zealand through research
projects which translate cutting-edge economics into best-practice solutions to real-world problems.
As applied and translational researchers, we translate pure research rom the academic
rontiers into actionable change. We take rontier research to businesses, government departments
or other workplaces, adapt them to messy realities and operationalise them so end-users can
integrate them into daily practice. I the frst solution doesnt succeed, we refne it.
As academics we analyse results rigorously and strive to stay evidence-based and impartial. And
we publish our fndings: not only in peer-reviewed academic journals, but also through our website,
seminars, workshops, media interviews, even social networks.
CARE consists o a small hub in the Department o Economics, radiating out through larger
networks o multi-disciplinary researchers. We have collaborated with a variety o disciplines rom
engineering to education. We cover all specialties, rom health economics to monetary policy.
We oten have hal a dozen projects on the go trying to fnd solutions to problems our clients
have identifed. We work in partnership with clients in public, private and non-governmental
organisations here and overseas.
The aim o CARE is to unshackle the power o
economics to be a orce or positive change inthe world. Change that is lasting and benefts
humanity.
Visit: www.business.auckland.ac.nz
and search CARE
Applied economics and CARE
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Augustine Choi
Augustine is in his
fth year o a BCom/
LLB(Hons), majoringin Economics. For
Augustine, economics
has grown rom being
the sole commerce-
related CIE course
oered at school, to a subject truly enjoyed. It is
the best o two worlds, combining value-based
social science with uninching mathematics.
Augustine eels that most importantly,
economics allows students to engage withissues not just o practical importance to the
sel-interested, but o society generally also.
He is hoping this workshop is at least an
acknowledgement o this strength.
Max Montgomery
Max is in his ourth year
o a conjoint BSc/BCom
at The University oAuckland. His passion
or mathematics has led
him to choose majors
in Pure Mathematics,
Statistics, Economics and
Finance. Max is interested in the externalities
o banking practices and how regulation can
be used to reduce the probability o negative
events occurring. Max worked in the Risk
Advisory team at KPMG last summer, and isinterested in pursuing an actuarial career i his
high cricket aspirations are not achieved.
Matthew Scoltock
Matthew is in his fth
year o a BCom/LLB. He
has a particular interest
in general equilibrium,
monetary economicsand environmental
economics, and spent
last summer researching
economic growth in
New Zealand as part o a research project
or Proessor Basil Sharp. He is interested in
pursuing a career as part o the tax team at
Deloitte starting next year.
Alice Wang
Alice is currently in
her ourth year o
a conjoint BA/LLB.
Studying philosophy
and economics during
her BA has pulled
her toward public
policy and economicregulation, and she recently spent a summer
working or an international legal and
regulatory practice in Auckland and Sydney.
Alice is also particularly interested in social
entrepreneurship and development, which has
taken her to programmes at Zhejiang University
in China and more recently to Gadjah Mada
University in Indonesia. Alice currently works as
a research assistant or Rhema Vaithianathan.
Jennie Yao
Jennie is currently in her
third year o a conjoint
BCom/LLB, majoring in
Economics. She hopes
to encourage her ellow
economics students to
realise that economics
is hardly just aboutdiagrams, ormulas and fgures, but it provides
us with a much more powerul apparatus or
thinking about our society and issues around
us. More importantly, our studies should induce
us to do something about these issues. People
say economists orecast the movements in
society; Jennie believes the most powerul
economists dictate how society moves.
I you are interested in keeping in touch withus or joining the committee or 2013, please
contact Alice Wang at
alice.jjwang@gmail.com
Applied Economics Workshop Committee 2012
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