Issue 24 November 2007
- Profiting from confusion
- Variety is the spice of life
- Happy 5th birthday! Do the SOX fit?
- Is climate change bad news and should New Zealand bother to fight?
- Responding to failures in retail investment markets
- Pendulous progress 20 years of NZ telcoms regulation
- Insider trading laws what works and what doesn't
Profiting from confusion
Firms sometimes offer what seems like a bewildering range of products or services. Does this reflect genuine desire to provide maximum flexibility to consumers - or is it a strategy designed to increase a firm's profits by confusing customers? And even if it is the latter, does anything need to be done? Eugenio Miravete considers these issues.
Variety is the spice of life
The 1980s reforms allowed New Zealanders to trade more freely with the rest of the world. Not only did this allow the purchase of lower-priced and/or higher-quality goods, it also saw the consumption of new goods and varieties that were previously unavailable. As William Taylor points out, greater variety can have significant implications for welfare.
Happy 5th birthday! Do the SOX fit?
Brought about largely by the Enron and WorldCom scandals, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was signed into law on 30 July 2002. It was controversial at the time, and the ensuing years have produced a plethora of academic studies examining its effects. Eli Grace-Webb summarises the results of this research.
Is climate change bad news and should New Zealand bother to fight?
n 1798, Thomas Robert Malthus forecast global disaster as a result of population growth outstripping arable land; but he overlooked the redemptive impact of technical progress. Today's modern Malthusians predict similar catastrophes from climate change - and the government seems to agree, having recently proposed an emissions-trading scheme as the cornerstone in New Zealand's fight against it. All this has prompted Richard Meade to ponder the wider implications of climate change for New Zealand.
Responding to failures in retail investment markets
The Australia-New Zealand Shadow Financial Regulatory Committee (ANZSFRC) comprises academic experts who meet twice a year to critically analyse aspects of the regulatory framework for financial institutions and markets. Its most recent Statement, issued in Melbourne on 25 September 2007, addresses the problem of retail investment product failures.
Pendulous progress 20 years of NZ telcoms regulation
The passing of the Telecommunications Act 1987 marked the beginning of a new era in New Zealand's telecommunications policy: regulatory protection of the government-owned monopoly provider was removed; a stand-alone corporate entity (Telecom) was created in 1989; and in 1990 that entity was sold to private owners. But despite considerable success, this era was short lived and was replaced in 2001 by a competition-focused regulatory regime. Bronwyn Howell assesses the consequences
Insider trading laws what works and what doesn't
The bulk of academic and policymaker opinion leans towards the view that insider trading must be regulated in order to ensure the equitable treatment of shareholders and to maintain confidence in sharemarket integrity. To date, little has been known about the optimal form of such regulation - but now a new multi-country study has yielded some insights. Bart Frijns, Aaron Gilbert and Alireza Tourani-Rad report.