2008 NZIER Economics Award citation
The Operating Guidelines for the Awarding Panel for the NZIER Economics Award enjoin the Panel to “look for outstanding contributions to the advancement of economics and its applications in New Zealand”. A contribution “must advance economic matters of direct relevance to New Zealand”, and must be “likely to be of long term lasting importance to New Zealand”.
The recipient of the 2008 Award has made, and continues to make, outstanding contributions, amply meeting these requirements, on a number of topics.
One such topic is that of savings. Contrasting beliefs that New Zealand has a household savings crisis, that inadequate retirement incomes would result from a rapidly aging population, that weak savings records have caused New Zealand to lag behind other developed countries, and that raising levels of savings would deepen domestic capital markets and boost economic growth, have made savings one of the most contentious recent political economic issues in this country. Through research and communication, the recipient of the Award has challenged these beliefs. In doing so, he has significantly advanced the understanding of academics, advisers, the public and students, of savings behaviour, the levels and composition of private wealth, and the adequacy of expected retirement incomes of New Zealand households.
John Gison with Michael Walls, Chair of the NZIER Board, at the 2008 NZIER AGM
The recipient of the Award has also undertaken substantial research on the education, labour market positions, and wealth of disadvantaged groups in New Zealand. His work on inequalities in income and wealth between Maori and Pakeha, and between migrants and locally born people, on training and job security for ethnic minorities, on Maori educational attainment, and on returns to schooling for Maori, sheds important light on the socio-economic positions of Maori and Pacific peoples.
A hallmark of the recipient’s work has been a willingness to generate new survey data, tirelessly and innovatively, where he has thought this necessary in order to answer empirical questions for which the existing data were inadequate.
This approach to his work has brought about a third major contribution from the recipient. Students at all levels, but particularly graduate research students, and academic colleagues, have learnt from him how vital it is, in economics just as in other fields, to concentrate on meaningful questions, to gather reliable and apposite empirical data, to analyse those data critically and rigorously, and then to disseminate those analyses through channels that will advance understanding of the issues, and inform debate on them. His students, in adopting that approach, are excellently equipped to contribute to New Zealand, and to other societies, in economics and in related fields.
The NZIER Economics Award for 2008 is accordingly given to Dr John Gibson.
