Bryce is a Senior Fellow at The New Zealand Initiative, and also the Director of the Wellington-based economic consultancy firm Capital Economics. Prior to setting this up in 1997 he was a Director of, and shareholder in, First NZ Capital. Before moving into investment banking in 1985, he worked in the New Zealand Treasury, reaching the position of Director. Bryce holds a PhD in economics from the University of Canterbury and was a Harkness Fellow at Harvard University. He is a Fellow of the Law and Economics Association of New Zealand.
Bryce is available for comment on fiscal issues, our poverty, inequality and welfare research. He also has a strong background in public policy analysis including monetary policy, capital markets research and microeconomic advisory work.
Latest reports:
KiwiBuild: Twyford's Tar Baby (2019)
Fit for Purpose? Are Kiwis getting the government they pay for? (2018)
Recipe for disaster: Building policy on shaky ground (2018)
Welfare, Work and Wellbeing: From Benefits to Better Lives (2017)
The Inequality Paradox: Why inequality Matters Even Though it has Barely Changed (2016)
Poorly Understood: The State of Poverty in New Zealand (2016)
Reducing Unnecessary Regulatory Costs (2015)
A Matter of Balance: Regulating Safety (2015)
Investing for success: Social Impact Bonds and the future of public services (2015)
Phone: +64 4 472 5986
A very long time ago, as long ago as last Friday, Yvette, 5, and Rupert, 6, committed their grandparents to 100 years of thinking time. Read more
Global debt is now higher relative to global income than in 2009 according to the latest International Monetary Fund statistics. This is despite the imposition of much more stringent financial regulation since the 2008 financial crisis. How worried should we be? Read more
Read The New Zealand Initiative's submission to the Environment Committee on the Crown Minerals (Petroleum) Amendment Bill. Read more
There are many things only the government can do. When it fails to excel, no one else can step in. We are all worse off. Read more
Our new report Fit for Purpose? Are Kiwis getting the government they pay for? looks into whether taxpayers are getting value for the tax dollars spent. It also compares productivity to how much money the government spends on core sectors such as education and health. Wallace Chapman interviews author Bryce Wilkinson about these and other findings in his report. Read more
Read The New Zealand Initiative's submission to the Treasury on New Zealand’s Fiscal Policy Framework: Establishing an Independent Fiscal Institution. Read more
Read The New Zealand Initiative's submission to the Treasury on Embedding wellbeing in the Public Finance Act 1989. Read more
Governments spend money irresponsibly when they don’t care much whether the wellbeing outcomes for New Zealanders justify the amount being spent. Read more
Yesterday, the government released the Tax Working Group’s interim report. As foreshadowed, the Group was coy about what it will recommend in December. The government on the other hand is clearly eager to see the Group make the case for new taxes. Almost as a matter of regret the background material mentioned the past removal of sales tax, excess retention tax, land tax, estate duty, stamp duty, gift duty, and cheque duty. Read more
New Zealand is a high-tax country compared to prosperous non-European countries but much of the money appears ill spent. Read more
The Tax Working Group's interim report released on Thursday rightly disposes of some unworthy proposals but confounds some others, particularly the capital gains issue. Read more
This report looks at how good a job government is doing with all the tasks entrusted to it. The issue is important because government has come to command much of our resources.Taxes in New Zealand have risen four times faster than incomes in the 20th century. Taxes now take more of our income than in almost any country outside Europe. We have become a high tax country.We, the public, need the government to spend our tax money well.Government is a... Read more
Bryce Wilkinson finds in his new report Fit for Purpose? Are Kiwis getting the government they pay for? one in three dollars the Government spends is not resulting in any measurable outcome.Bryce tells Mike Hosking education funding often gets spent in what it says are the wrong places."To have all of those years of schooling and have such inadequate progress, the question has to be asked what more can be done, or how can it be done better." Read more
Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson discusses on TVNZ Breakfast our new report Fit for Purpose? Are Kiwis getting the government they pay for?The report finds government is wasting New Zealand’s resources on a grand scale because it is failing to focus on producing value for money. Read more
Read The New Zealand Initiative's submission to the Finance and Expenditure Committee on the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (Monetary Policy) Amendment Bill. Read more