Good Public Policy and Management relies on robust and well-informed advice. With the increasingly complex nature of issues facing government, an understanding of fundamental economic concepts and the implications for policy analysis and advice is critical for a public service that meets the immediate needs of its citizens and looks ahead to the future needs of the nation.
This online series is designed to provide public servants, who do not have a background in economics, an introductory overview of key terms/concepts/instruments commonly used in Public Sector planning and advice.
The series is split across the following three 1-hour webinars –
Macro Economics – Tuesday 5 April, 10.00am
Girol Karacaoglu - Head of the School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington
This session outlines the concepts of macroeconomics with emphasis on their application to public policy analysis. Along with big picture, economy operation, it will explore specific concepts such as fiscal policy settings and the economic tools available to assess policy.
Micro Economics – Thursday 7 April, 10.00am
Veronica Jacobsen – Director, Sapere Research Group (former chair of the Government Economics Network)
Understanding key concepts of microeconomics is essential for rigorous public sector policy analysis. This session explores the following concepts and their implications for public policy - cost-benefit analysis, opportunity-cost and trade-offs, uncertainty and complexity and behavioural economics.
Living Standards Framework – Tuesday 12 April, 10.00am
Tim Hughes – Principal Advisor Economic Capability, The Treasury
This session provides an overview of the LSF and addresses the challenges of improving well being, as well as bias and inequity when considering the distributional impacts of public policy. The Living Standards Framework (LSF) is, “a flexible framework that prompts our thinking about policy impacts across the different dimensions of wellbeing, as well as the long-term and distributional issues and implications of policy”.
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/96897391707?pwd=QkxTdjhKL3dVd25wTm9kSHhhcmlidz09
Passcode: 597748