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
The British Prime Minister received an unflattering open letter. Its signatories were 364 economists, all united in condemning her economic management. Read more
Oliver Hartwich chats with ACT’s Transport and Climate Change spokesperson Simon Court about the Clean Car Scheme and how it's adding bureaucracy, not reducing emissions. To listen to our latest podcasts, please subscribe to The New Zealand Initiative podcast on iTunes, Spotify or The Podcast App. Read more
The war in Europe is entering its most dangerous phase yet. Over the past week, we saw 300,000 Russian soldiers mobilised, scam referenda in Russian-occupied territories, and apparent bombings of the Nord Stream pipelines. Read more
In this episode Michael Johnston hosts Oliver Hartwich and Eric Crampton to discuss various European crises and how New Zealand should be learning from, and not repeating, the European mistakes. To listen to our latest podcasts, please subscribe to The New Zealand Initiative podcast on iTunes, Spotify or The Podcast App. Read more
Wellington (Wednesday, 28 September 2022) – New Zealand’s economists strongly support the Emissions Trading Scheme and strengthening it through a carbon dividend. The latest survey of members of the New Zealand Association of Economists finds extraordinarily strong agreement that: Tightening the ETS’s cap on emissions makes far more sense than measures like fuel economy standards on imported vehicles (53% strongly agree, 35% agree, 5% disagree); If additional market failures are present, policies should target those directly to reduce the cost of mitigating emissions (24% strongly agree, 57% agree, 2% strongly disagree); A carbon dividend to households beats measures like electric vehicle subsidies or targeted regulations for ensuring equity (45% strongly agree; 48% agree; 2% disagree). Read more
If you are a political reformer, New Zealand should be your oyster. You could turn around a failing education system. Read more
Having attended too many public policy conferences, it was only a matter of time until they started haunting me in my sleep. So, one night, I woke up from a nightmare. Read more
Mike Hosking from Newstalk ZB comments on Oliver Hartwich's recent Newsroom article about the possibility of Italy's most right-wing government since Mussolini. Read more
According to a quote sometimes attributed to George Orwell, “journalism is printing what someone else does not want published; everything else is public relations.” Whether Orwell actually said it or not, it is a useful definition. There are whole armies of PR and comms people trying to make you swallow their predetermined messages. Read more
Ideology rather than evidence is the basis for the Ministry of Education’s (MoE) ‘Modern Leaning Environments’, research by The New Zealand Initiative has revealed. Dr Oliver Hartwich and Dr Michael Johnston discuss the fact that a government ministry could not produce data to support its policy for mass conversion of New Zealand’s classrooms to Innovative Learning Environments (ILEs) and other findings of the Initiative’s new report, "No Evidence, No Evaluation, No Exit – Lessons from the 'Modern Learning Environments' experiment". Read more
In October 1922, a young journalist and agitator from the hard right marched to Rome to seize political power. This month, a 45-year-old former journalist with far-right leanings is also running for office in Italy. Read more
After driving through rough terrain for a long time, you finally realise you have been going in the wrong direction all along. So, what will you do: speed up, slow down, or turn around? Read more
We mourn the passing of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Her reign was extraordinary. Read more
I have a good relationship with my parents. However, when the subject of visiting them for Christmas came up, their answer was: “You’d better not come!” In every respect, Germany is expecting a miserable winter. Read more
The New Zealand Initiative's latest report researched claims made by the Government that systemic racism is to blame for poor Māori health outcomes. It also analysed the Government’s prescription to remedy the situation by prioritising health spending for Māori, especially in Pharmac’s medicine procurement. Read more