Measuring the New Zealand transaction sector, 1956–98, with an Australian comparison

Abstract

This paper uses a modification of the Wallis and North (1986) method to generate estimates of the size of the transaction sector in New Zealand from 1956 to 1996, encompassing the pre‐1984 period of unusually stringent (by OECD standards) restrictions and controls on the extent of market activity, followed by the liberalisation reforms of 1984–91. The ratio of transaction to ‘transformation’ (production) employees increased quite slowly for the first twenty five years, then increases sharply in the 1980s, before stabilising in the 1990s at about 0.68, implying two workers in five occupied in transaction activities. The most striking increase is in the number of managers, which more than quadrupled. Because of this, the share of transaction employment is by now higher than in Australia.

Notes

Department of Economics, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand. email: [email protected]