Oliver is the Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative. Before joining the Initiative, he was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, the Chief Economist at the Policy Exchange in London, and an advisor in the UK House of Lords.
Oliver holds a master's degree in economics and business administration and a PhD in Law from Bochum University in Germany.
Oliver is available to comment on all of the Initiative’s research areas.
Phone: +64 4 499 0790
Life is frustrating for German savers. If they had 5,000 euros to invest and wanted to keep them in an instant access savings account, Deutsche Bank currently offers them an interest rate of 0.15 per cent, the Cologne Savings Bank 0.20 per cent and Postbank a whopping 0.7 percent. Read more
It is a strange world. Even the most ardent defenders of the European Central Bank’s interest rate cut last week do not claim it will have any effect. Read more
The biggest surprise announcement out of Labour’s conference last weekend was the proposal to establish KiwiAssure, a new state-owned insurance company. Speaking to his party’s delegates, opposition leader David Cunliffe argued KiwiAssure would inject more competition into the insurance market. Read more
Last week, just as I was about to board my early morning flight to Auckland, I ran into the US Ambassador to New Zealand. An ex-commercial lawyer, he is a witty and clever man who usually does not mind a joke. Read more
When it became known that the US secret service successfully tapped the mobile phone of German chancellor Angela Merkel, this made international headlines last week. Rightly so – but not just because this is the latest revelation in the wake of Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing on the activities of the National Security Agency. Read more
When people meet under Chatham House rules, you cannot disclose afterwards who said what. That's the drawback. Read more
Can representative democracy survive the 21st century? According to Leon de Winter, the Dutch novelist and intellectual, the chances are not too good. Read more
Can representative democracy survive in the 21st century? According to Leon de Winter, the Dutch novelist and intellectual, the chances are not too good. Read more
On Monday Europe’s statistical agency, Eurostat, published its official annual data for the European Union’s public finances. Superficially, there is at least some good news in the figures: the eurozone deficit for 2012 was 3.7 per cent of GDP. Read more
The European crisis plays itself out on different levels: some clearly visible, others less so. What dominated the headlines of the past four years was Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. Read more
When think tanks launch their reports, reactions are typically divided. Fair enough: our goal is to present innovative analysis and recommendations and trigger debates. Read more
A chameleon might blush with envy next to British Prime Minister David Cameron. Eight years after his election as leader of the Conservative Party, and a little more than three years since becoming Prime Minister in a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, Cameron has reinvented himself yet again. Read more
It is good to see housing high on the policy agenda. That is where it should be. Read more