Why are New Zealanders so Wealthy?

It is commonplace in New Zealand to bemoan our fall in living standards relative to the rest of the developed world. In 1950 New Zealand ranked third in the OECD in terms of GDP per head. That position had fallen to 20th by 19981 and recently Spain passed New Zealand relegating us to 21st place. Government has recently expressed an explicit aim to return New Zealand to the top half of the 28 OECD countries in terms of income per head.

Citation

Grimes, Arthur. 2002. "Why are New Zealanders so Wealthy?" Competition and Regulation Times, 9 (Nov), pp. 4-5. New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation Inc, Wellington.