IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/revpoe/v13y2001i3p309-327.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Productive and Unproductive Capital: A mapping of the New Zealand system of national accounts to classical economic categories, 1972-95

Author

Listed:
  • Bruce Cronin

Abstract

New Zealand has gained considerable international attention for the neo-liberal economic reform programme it enacted from the mid-1980s; this programme has served as a model for similar reform elsewhere. Within the neoclassical framework of the reformers, the programme has produced many improvements to the economy. Such fundamental indicators as lower inflation, lower budget deficits and higher economic growth are cited as evidence of the improved economic conditions. Yet unemployment remains high, real interest rates are among the highest in the world, nominal interest rates and business confidence fluctuate considerably, and the balance of payments is deteriorating. Using a classical framework, this paper examines the neo-liberal reform of the New Zealand economy to see if there are alternative explanations for the persistence of these problems. The methodology developed by Shaikh & Tonak (1994) is used to map official national accounts data to classical economic categories for the 1972 to 1995 period. This approach is compared with earlier attempts at estimating classical economic categories for New Zealand. This classical view of the economic reforms is compared with the conventional view. The paper's main results are that there was a large increase in unproductive economic activity associated with the economic reforms in New Zealand; that the improvement in economic fundamentals emphasised by the reformers reflects this growth of unproductive activity; and that the persistence of other economic indicators is related to the ongoing weakness of productive activity.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruce Cronin, 2001. "Productive and Unproductive Capital: A mapping of the New Zealand system of national accounts to classical economic categories, 1972-95," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 309-327.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:revpoe:v:13:y:2001:i:3:p:309-327
    DOI: 10.1080/09538250120055168
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09538250120055168
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09538250120055168?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Reder, Melvin W, 1982. "Chicago Economics: Permanence and Change," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 1-38, March.
    2. Moseley, Fred, 1985. "The Rate of Surplus Value in the Postwar U.S. Economy: A Critique of Weisskopf's Estimates," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 9(1), pages 57-79, March.
    3. Wolff, Edward N, 1975. "The Rate of Surplus Value in Puerto Rico," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 83(5), pages 935-949, October.
    4. John Williamson, 1994. "The Political Economy of Policy Reform," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number 68, April.
    5. Eisner, Robert, 1988. "Extended Accounts for National Income and Product," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 26(4), pages 1611-1684, December.
    6. Wolff,Edward N., 1987. "Growth, Accumulation, and Unproductive Activity," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521251518, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Henrique Morrone & Adalmir Antonio Marquetti & Alessandro Donadio Miebach, 2023. "Productive and Unproductive Sectors’ Interactions in Brazil: A Miyazawa Analysis," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 55(2), pages 251-268, June.
    2. Edvinsson, Rodney, 2016. "What are production, work and consumption? Trans-historical re-conceptualisations," Stockholm Papers in Economic History 19, Stockholm University, Department of Economic History.
    3. Cronin, Bruce, 2008. "Economic restructuring in New Zealand: A classical account," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 340-382.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hyun Woong Park & Dong-Min Rieu, 2020. "A Mathematical Formulation of the Dual Nature of Unproductive Labor," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 52(4), pages 716-738, December.
    2. Daniel Ştefan Armeanu & Georgeta Vintilă & Ştefan Cristian Gherghina, 2017. "Empirical Study towards the Drivers of Sustainable Economic Growth in EU-28 Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-22, December.
    3. Bryan Caplan & Edward Stringham, 2005. "Mises, bastiat, public opinion, and public choice," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 79-105.
    4. Guillermo A. Calvo, 2008. "Crises in Emerging Markets Economies: A Global Perspective," Central Banking, Analysis, and Economic Policies Book Series, in: Kevin Cowan & Sebastián Edwards & Rodrigo O. Valdés & Norman Loayza (Series Editor) & Klaus Schmidt- (ed.),Current Account and External Financing, edition 1, volume 12, chapter 3, pages 085-115, Central Bank of Chile.
    5. Christian Johnson & George G Kaufman, 2007. "Un banco, con cualquier otro nombre…," Boletín, CEMLA, vol. 0(4), pages 185-199, Octubre-d.
    6. Pitlik, Hans & Wirth, Steffen, 2003. "Do crises promote the extent of economic liberalization?: an empirical test," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 565-581, September.
    7. Bernd Hayo & Doh Shin, 2002. "Popular Reaction to the Intervention by the IMF in the Korean Economic Crisis," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(2), pages 89-100.
    8. Prato, Carlo & Wolton, Stephane, 2018. "Rational ignorance, populism, and reform," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 119-135.
    9. Cossu Elena, 2023. "Clustering and Analysing Relevant Policy Dimensions of Populist, Left-Wing, Centrist, and Right-Wing Parties across Europe," Central European Journal of Public Policy, Sciendo, vol. 17(1), pages 41-54, June.
    10. Massimo Cingolani, 2015. "Sylos Labini su Marx: implicazioni per la politica economica (Sylos Labini on Marx: economic policy implications)," Moneta e Credito, Economia civile, vol. 68(269), pages 81-147.
    11. McCourt, Willy, 2003. "Political Commitment to Reform: Civil Service Reform in Swaziland," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1015-1031, June.
    12. Hendrik P. van Dalen, 2003. "Pluralism in Economics: A Public Good or a Public Bad?," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 03-034/1, Tinbergen Institute, revised 18 May 2004.
    13. Karen L. Remmer, 2004. "Does Foreign Aid Promote the Expansion of Government?," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(1), pages 77-92, January.
    14. Daniel L. Nielson, 2003. "Supplying Trade Reform: Political Institutions and Liberalization in Middle‐Income Presidential Democracies," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(3), pages 470-491, July.
    15. Nicolai J. Foss, 2002. "The Strategy and Transaction Cost Nexus Past Debates, Central Questions, and Future Research Possibilities," DRUID Working Papers 02-04, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    16. Pietro Garibaldi & Etienne Wasmer, 2005. "Equilibrium Search Unemployment, Endogenous Participation, And Labor Market Flows," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(4), pages 851-882, June.
    17. Xue, Jianpo & Yip, Chong K., 2018. "Home production, balanced-budget taxation and economic (in)stability," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 231-242.
    18. Maliar, Lilia & Maliar, Serguei, 2000. "Differential Responses of Labor Supply across Productivity Groups," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 85-108, January.
    19. Monasterolo, Irene & Benni, Federica, 2013. "Non parametric methods to assess the role of the CAP in regional convergence in Hungary," Studies in Agricultural Economics, Research Institute for Agricultural Economics, vol. 115(3), pages 1-9, December.
    20. Christopher House & John Laitner & Dmitriy Stolyarov, 2008. "Valuing Lost Home Production Of Dual Earner Couples," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 49(2), pages 701-736, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:revpoe:v:13:y:2001:i:3:p:309-327. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CRPE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.