Abstract
Summary
For the last few decades New Zealand’s general policy approach has been to pursue economic openness (with some protections), in order to get the benefit of international growth drivers. Some of the political and economic developments around globalisation today are challenging that traditional approach.
Traditionally we think of external economic balance as the current account. Dr Bollard’s approach would go much wider, exploring our patterns of merchandise trade flows, services trade, short term capital movements, outward direct investment, labour movements, economic migration, data movements, business mobility and other less tangible flows (e.g. intellectual property, human capital) across borders.
Much of the debate centres on our inflows. This seminar turns the spotlight on outflows. It questions whether we are leaking value internationally: losing talent, falling off the value chain, undervaluing services, losing businesses (including their ideas and their taxes) to overseas interests. Questions abound: do we really leak value, do we have any alternatives, and what might “sticky policies” look like?
About the presenter
Dr Alan Bollard, Professor of Practice, School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington
Dr Alan Bollard is a Professor of Practice at the School of Government, Victoria Business School, and inaugural holder of the Chair for Pacific Region Business.
From 2012 - 2018 Alan was the Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat based in Singapore, the body that promotes trade, investment and sustainable economic growth in the Asia-Pacific. He advanced APEC’s agenda by executing APEC’s work programmes as mandated by Leaders and Ministers.
Prior to joining APEC, Dr Bollard was the Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand from 2002 to 2012. In that position, he was responsible for monetary policy and bank regulations, helping steer New Zealand through the global financial crisis.
From 1998 to 2002, Dr Bollard was the Secretary to the New Zealand Treasury. As the government’s principal economic adviser, he managed the Crown’s finances and helped guide economic policy. He has served as New Zealand’s Alternate Governor to the International Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. From 1994 – 2008, he was the Chairman of the New Zealand Commerce Commission. Prior to this from 1987 to 1994 he was Director of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research. He has a PhD in Economics from the University of Auckland.
Dr Bollard has helped rebuild the famous MONIAC hydraulic model of the British economy. He has also designed a computer simulation game called OIKONOMOS where you play at being Minister of Finance. He wrote a best-selling account of the GFC called “Crisis: One Central Bank Governor and the Global Financial Collapse”. He has published a novel entitled ‘The Rough Mechanical’ and a biography of famous economist Bill Phillips in 2016.
In 2012 he was honoured as a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.