À atenção do Eng. Sócrates

Market Reform: Lessons from New Zealand

Although many of the individual elements of New Zealand?s reforms can be found in other countries, two aspects make the reforms there unique in the West. The first is that they took place in the context of a coherent overall framework focused on economic efficiency, stressing predictability, transparency, and accountability. As a result, individual reforms became mutually reinforcing. Supply-side gains were driven by a flatter tax structure and the elimination of distorting tax breaks. Farmers accepted the phasing out of agricultural subsidies because their costs fell with the reduction of tariffs on imported manufactured goods, while the costs of transporting agricultural exports also fell as a result of the commercial management of New Zealand?s ports and railways. That way, losers were also winners. As the economy was freed up and growth kicked in, the gains outweighed the losses. The reformers were influenced by economic thinkers such as Mancur Olson, Ronald Coase, and James Buchanan, and the reforms were shaped by insights from public choice theory, agency theory, and transaction cost economics. The whole process was characterized by robustness and coherence. The ?scientific? nature of the reforms enabled them to be successfully directed to the core functions of government, leading to practical results.