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.
Bryce was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2025 New Year's honours for his significant contributions to public policy formation and economic research, spanning his influential work at Treasury during New Zealand's major economic reforms and his extensive research on fiscal discipline and regulatory quality.
Phone: +64 4 499 0790
Democracy is a very fine thing, yet is worth dying for, and it is humbling to think of all those who have. Yet general election campaigns do not bring the populace's best instincts to the fore. Read more
A two-page feature in the Sunday Star-Times (Aug 3) says Labour’s promise to introduce a capital gains tax and raise the top rate of income tax has put “equality” back at the heart of economic and political debate. The only concept of equality the article considers is one where the ideal is that everyone gets the same income regardless of how hard or productively they work. Read more
An article recently published by the New Zealand Listener, Child support that works, asserts that the existing system of child support "is next to useless at reducing poverty" - because, to a large extent "Government simply takes the child support to offset the benefit".Yet this is exactly what should happen if the purpose of the benefit is to top up inadequate child-support payments by non-custodial parents. Child-support payments allow more children to be supported than could be funded otherwise. Read more
MYTH 1: Foreign investment means loss of control Parliament remains the supreme law-making body, inwards foreign investment must comply with New Zealand laws, and foreigners don't get to vote. Land use and business activity is extensively regulated in New Zealand, for overseas and local investors alike. Read more
Openness to foreign trade and capital is fundamental to New Zealand's prosperity. If we get both aspects right, New Zealanders can enjoy the best things the world can offer and great job prospects – without emigrating. Read more
This week we published the last in our series of three reports on New Zealand’s external financial links. Our report, Open for business: Removing the barriers to foreign investment, co-authored by the writer and Research Assistant Khyaati Acharya, examines New Zealand’s Overseas Investment Act 2005 and associated regulations. Read more
This is the third and final report in The New Zealand Initiative’s series on New Zealand’s global financial links. The second report in the series, Capital Doldrums, found that New Zealand stands out in international comparisons for the restrictiveness of its regulatory regime and the slump it its ranking for investment attractiveness. Read more
Economists can agree about many things. The importance of tradable property rights in scarce fresh water is a case in point. Read more
Fiscal surpluses are in sight, export prices are extraordinarily high relative to import prices, national income growth prospects look brighter than for many years, and this is a general election year. This sets the stage for unsustainable increases in government spending - or for tax cuts or some combination of the two. Read more
It is often said that tax is the price we pay for a civilised society. Indeed, taxes are necessary to fund key public services, including defence, law and order, the courts, border controls, civil defence, foreign affairs, public administration generally, and a contestably lengthy list of other potentially worthy activities of a collective nature. Read more
Last week the New Zealand Productivity Commission (NZPC) published its second interim report on productivity in the private sector component of the services industry. This website provides easy access to this report and related documents. Read more
Openness to the rest of the world through trade and capital is key to the prosperity of nations. Merchandise world trade has grown much faster than world GDP since 1980, but not as fast as global foreign direct investment (FDI). Read more