John Lepper

John Lepper (born 1946, in Worthing, West Sussex) is an economist based in Aotearoa, New Zealand. He was chief economist of the Bank of New Zealand, economic advisor to the Leader of the NZ NewLabour Party and NZ Alliance Party when in opposition and in government, and economic advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand. with Professor G.L.S. Shackle as external examiner.

Career During and after his doctoral studies Lepper taught economics at various institutions including University of Surrey, City of London Polytechnic, and University of Maryland, Upper Heyford Airforce Base, in the UK, and the University of Auckland, in Aotearoa, where Alan Bollard was one of his students.

From 1976 to 1981 he was an Economic Researcher in the London office of Nomura Research Institute (NRI), where he was the first non-Japanese analyst. During his time at Nomura, Lepper was the founding London Editor of "Nomura Investment Review", and represented NRI at Kiel University seminars on the world economy and at Independent Treasury Economic Model group (ITEM) forecasting meetings.

In mid-1981, Lepper moved back to Aotearoa to take up the position as chief economist of the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ), a position he held until 1988. During the 1980s and 1990s he was also a visiting lecturer in economics at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.

After leaving the BNZ, Lepper formed the independent economic consultancy firm, Integrated Economic Services Ltd (IES), with fellow former-BNZ economist Petrus Simons and prominent economist Len Bayliss. IES operated from 1988 - 2003 and was founded on the importance of integrating politics, and other considerations such as technology, into economic thinking. IES has been described in 1989 as one of the 'big players in the game' of economic forecasting and more recently specifically as a 'forecasting group', in reality the forecasting work of IES consisted of less than ten percent of total business begun with the Fourth Labour Government, and marking a shift in Labour strategy away from attacking National as its main enemy. when Anderton was Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand in the Fifth Labour Government that formed initially in coalition with the Alliance in 1999. In June 2002, Lepper wrote a memo to Anderton titled 'What has been stopped and achieved' detailing a list of policies the Alliance had prevented Labour from carrying out and of government policies that had been initiated by the Alliance. The list of successfully implemented initiatives included: local government reform; an increase in the conservation vote; a national park on Rakiura Stewart Island; increases in grants for the Environment Court and Waitangi Tribunal; the establishment of the NZ owned Kiwibank; raising minimum youth rates; a public health approach to gambling; and a low fixed-cost option for electricity bills. a helpline and befriending service that provided information, friendship and advice to older people.

Commentary and critical analysis From the 1980s to the mid 1990s, Lepper featured in print and broadcast media in Aotearoa providing commentary and critical analysis of developments in the New Zealand economy, government economic policy and global banking movements.

At the time of the 1991 Mother of all Budgets Lepper spoke out against economic austerity. In response to the social welfare cuts by the Fourth National Government, Lepper challenged the government narrative of fiscal savings. He calculated that reducing benefits by the proposed rate would in real terms save much less than the government was predicting, and more crucially, the cuts would cost the whole of the New Zealand economy to shrink, due to the rise in unemployment and drop in household spending. and told the NZ Listener, "Cutting the deficit in the middle of a depression is a bloody stupid thing to do. It worsens the depression. It reduces demand in an already weak economy." Lepper told TVNZ the fact that low income earners in Aotearoa pay tax on all their income is unusual in the world.

Selected works Lepper, John, Land and Money: How Britain colonised Australia and New Zealand during the long nineteenth century, (2025) Kerr Publishing: Melbourne. Volume 1: Volume 2: — "Sources of the Treaty of Waitangi", Appendix A, pp. 222–244 and 267-276 in: Ormsby, Maurice, Te Ohaki Tapu: John Stuart Mill & Ngati Maniapoto, (2022) Steele Roberts: Paraparaumu. —An Enquiry into the Ideology and Reality of Market and Market System, (2012) Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke.