Matt Nolan

On “currency wars”

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We keep hearing concerns about “currency wars” around the wold, with the blame being put on Quantitative Easing.  In fact our Reserve Bank even came out to complain about QE.

But to be honest, this argument is nonsensical unless you are explicitly forecasting “monetary policy failure” overseas.

Lets go back to Essays on the Great Depression by Ben Bernanke – when talking about countries depreciating by rolling off the gold standard:

Depreciation, in this context, should not necessarily be thought of as a “beggar thy neighbor” policy; because depreciations reduced constraints on the growth of world money supplies, they may have conferred benefits abroad as well as at home.

With interest rates stuck at the zero lower bound, and a sharp contraction in lending across the world, the fact that QE lead to devaluation in the US currency should not be seen as a bad thing.

QE is, in essence, aiming to lower interest rates within the US economy in order to bring forward spending and investment – to stimulate “aggregate demand”.  Why did we not get similar arguments from people whenever the US cut interest rates prior to the crisis … as it is essentially the same thing.

Instead of getting annoyed at the high currency, lets ask what it is telling us about monetary and economic conditions here – instead of assuming that the value of the dollar is “wrong”, and asking for arbitrary organisations to “do something” lets use it like any other price, and try to understand what it is telling us.

Matt Nolan

The Dismal Science … on Sciblogs

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Eric Crampton over at Offsetting has managed to wrangle the NZ econblogger community some space over at Sciblogs.

I’m very impressed that Sciblogs has allowed this, and it shows that they recognise that their desire to add to the policy debate in NZ can be helped by having an economist feed loitering around.

Although I read all these NZ economics blogs already, it will be nice to have a summary of the more indepth stuff sitting around – go and have a look 😉

Matt Nolan

Defending inflation targeting

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After seeing David Parker claim that inflation targeting was dead, I felt obliged to chip in with my two cents – which Rates Blog kindly allowed me to do.

In the article I looks at the critique of RBNZ policy based on “imported price spikes” and “credit flows” and point out how the RBNZ framework for this does makes sense – and does not need a change.

My conclusion shifts the blame for any perceived imbalances:

The determination to change what the Reserve Bank does is surprising to me. Our central bank helped to guide New Zealand through one of the largest global shocks imaginable, helped to keep our core banking system together, and by all but the strictest measures they have achieved their monetary policy mandate.

A clear target for monetary policy, a respect for their role in financial stability, and their credibility with the public were the things that helped them achieve this. It makes no sense to turn around and change what the Reserve Bank is doing after such a success.

Instead, those in government should be looking at themselves.

Policies to favour investment in residential property (through tax status and other regulatory focuses) helped to drive the “imbalances” New Zealand faces.

A failure to take into account population aging is making the government fiscal situation look increasingly unsustainable.

Transfers to the middle classes, which we may feel are fair, still come with a cost – bidding up house prices, and reducing capital investment.

If we want to explain the “imbalances” in the country, and what should be done, we need to look at government policy, and the interventionist policies taking place overseas – the monetary policy of the RBNZ is an unrelated scapegoat.

Governments aren’t honest about the costs of their policies.  The decision to introduce working for familes, and generally increase targeted spending, reduces inequality – but it reduces economic activity and “competitiveness”.  We may believe these transfers are fair, that is fine, but no amount of blaming the RBNZ will change the trade-off we face.

Politicians are either lying or are naive about the trade-offs – either way, their bleating is giving you the wrong information, and it threatening to disestablish the institutions that have helped New Zealand do relatively well in the last 20 years.

jamesz

Trespassing sexual offenders

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The Whanganui council’s reaction to Stuart Wilson’s release has been striking:

Whanganui’s public “shunning” of Wilson will be coordinated by councillors Jack Bullock and Ray Stevens.
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Mayor Annette Main said the decisions made by the council [to ban Wilson from public areas] would help keep the community safe from sex offenders such as Wilson.

Back in March we blogged about a paper on recidivism among sexual offenders. It found that community notification and reaction to released offenders actually increased the likelihood of re-offending. By making release to unpalatable to the offender it decreases the cost to them of going back to jail. Thus it may be that the Whanganui council’s actions, which reduce the deterrent of jail, may actually be placing the community at greater risk.

Matt Nolan

Incentivised employment schemes

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Via Danyl on Twitter (from Dimpost) we have been offered the job of justifying specific incentive schemes for people currently out of employment.  The brief went as follows:

Whoever comes up with a policy-based excuse for the MSD Minister to shove beneficiaries’ heads down a toilet on live TV will be a rich man

In the interests of better public policy, helping those less fortunate, and becoming rich men – TVHE is taking it upon ourselves to discuss the benefits of this obviously positive scheme, the “pro-active employment incentive scheme“.

Now on the face of it, public humiliation seems like a terrible thing to do to someone.  However, it is important not to let moral considerations get in the way of an objective analysis of the facts – which will then allow us to weigh up the costs and benefits of the scheme more appopriately.

We have to realise that, when a scheme is put in place we can’t just look at some perceived “cost” that people who are currently beneficiaries would bear!  Undeniably, people would change behaviour given the possibility of having their heads shoved down a toilet, and our modeling suggests that the change in behaviour would make people better off then they are in the situation without this credible threat.

So, in the interests of clear and transparent accounting, here are bullets of the expected benefits of this scheme:

  1. A significant increase in beneficiaries moving into work:  This increases economic output, and increases the welfare of the individual by improving their human capital – which they are currently not taking into account when looking for work.
  2. An increase in labour productivity among the current workforce:  Knowing that Kentucky unemployment comes with an additional cost, employees will spend less time on facebook and more time enjoying the process of creating output.
  3. A drop in labour force participation:  If you can’t find work, leave the labour market or get dunked in a toilet – in this situation some people will leave the labour market.  On the face of it this may seem like a bad thing, however we know that New Zealander’s work “too much” – if we have some people leaving the labour market altogether, this may well lower the average number of hours people are working!
  4. Consumption benefit to the viewing public:  Even if no-one ends up getting dunked, the idea of it will excite the public, satisfying a well know urge for public spectacles.

Of course there are costs, these are:

  1. The direct cost of being dunked and embarrased.  Our modeling suggests this is an insignificant issue.
  2. The cost of free-to-air TV:  Having to pay TV stations is a cost, however this issue is outside the scope of the study, and merely suggests setting a price somewhere.
  3. The cost of the minimum wage:  A minimum wage will ensure that some people who do not want to be dunked can’t find work!  As a result, this cost can be removed by removing the minimum wage.

As we can see, there are 4 bullet points in favour, and 3 against – two of which are pretty much irrelevant.  Compelling evidence in favour of a “pro-active employment incentive scheme” such toilet dunking and public wedgies.

Note:  None of this is serious.

jamesz

How should interdisciplinary exchange occur?

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A question that’s regularly arisen of late is how economics can learn from, and inform, other disciplines. I think it’s been sparked by the prevalence of scientists commenting on economic growth. We’ve had numerous bloggers up in arms about Shaun Hendy’s semi-informed comments, and now the Royal Society is broadcasting a discussion of the matter.

Economists all seem to agree that it would be a good idea if scientists took the time to understand something about economics before making pronouncements. Where there is substantial disagreement is over the way in which the exchange with practitioners of other disciplines should occur. I don’t think there’s any doubt that disciplines borrow from each other in a fashion that is helpful to both. Witness the success in economics of optimisation and evolutionary game theory, borrowed from physics and biology respectively. The question is how that should occur. Read more