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
Inflation is a problem for the first time in 30 years. Property prices have whiplashed. Read more
In his new report, Made by Government: New Zealand's Monetary Policy Mess, Dr Bryce Wilkinson highlights the mess the Government/Minister of Finance and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) have made of monetary policy. Inflation is once more a real problem, property prices have whiplashed and taxpayers have lost $9 billion. Read more
Wellington (Thursday, 16 March 2023) – A new report by The New Zealand Initiative examines the mess the Government/Minister of Finance and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) have made of monetary policy. Inflation is once more a real problem, property prices have whiplashed and taxpayers have lost $9 billion. Read more
Nathan Rarere and Anan Zaki report on Bryce Wilkinson's new report Made by Government: New Zealand's Monetary Policy Mess. Read more
Central banks, above all, are responsible for overseeing financial stability and controlling inflation. Many central banks, including the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ), have inadvertently fueled excessive inflation through their responses to Covid-19, resulting in massive losses on taxpayers. Read more
In his new report, Made by Government: New Zealand's Monetary Policy Mess, Dr Bryce Wilkinson highlights the mess the Government/Minister of Finance and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) have made of monetary policy. Inflation is once more a real problem, property prices have whiplashed and taxpayers have lost $9 billion. Read more
Rob Campbell’s uncalled-for derogatory comment about National‘s “three waters” replacement policy has raised concerns about public service bias in New Zealand. His is not the only case. Read more
Parliament’s Environment Committee is currently considering the Government’s woeful replacement Bills for the Resource Management Act. Eric Crampton and I appeared before the Committee last week to speak to the New Zealand Initiative’s submission on the Natural and Build Environment Bill and the Spatial Planning Bill. Read more
Resilient infrastructure is crucial for protecting people during disasters and ensuring that communities can bounce back quickly in the aftermath of a crisis. Two powerful examples of this can be seen in New Zealand's response to the 2011 Christchurch earthquake and, more recently, Cyclone Gabrielle. Read more
The UK Financial Times opined in late December that the biggest casualty of 2022 was the reputation of big central banks. Central banks failed to forecast the rise in inflation caused by easy money. Read more
In this week's podcast we are diving into the much-anticipated policy shift announced by the country's new Prime Minister. The speculation has been building for months, with many wondering what policies will be scrapped and which ones will remain. Read more
How seriously does our Reserve Bank take monetary policy? There should be no doubt that it takes it very seriously indeed. Read more
Budget 2023 is an election year budget. Many voters want to be fed (bigger) hand-outs. Read more
The Auditor-General is deeply concerned “about a lack of transparency and accountability over the spending of public money”. On 14 November, he took the extraordinary step of writing to Parliament's Speaker, Adrian Rurawhe and the chairs of two select committees about the problem. Read more
This morning’s newspapers carried a full-page open letter from 42,576 signatories pointing out how undemocratic is one aspect of the Government’s three waters legislation. The Government’s Bill confiscates local communities’ investment in water assets without compensation, and wrecks their future governance. Read more