Productivity, planning and the price mechanism in New Zealand manufacturing industry : address to Annual Meeting of Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association, August 1966

Abstract

This paper concerns with the broad theme of the relative place in the economy of agriculture and manufacturing industry. These two very important sectors of the economy are alternative and competing methods of increasing real incomes per head in New Zealand. They are alternative methods because, largely speaking, local manufacturing represents a method of providing goods which could otherwise be provided by imports of finished goods, paid for by agricultural exports. They are competing methods because clearly the resources used in one sector cannot be used in the other. This is especially important with capital, in particular imported capital goods of which New Zealand is very short.