Professor Girol Karacaoglu

Head of School

School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington

Professor Girol Karacaoglu is the recently appointed Head of the School of Government. He came to Victoria University of Wellington from the New Zealand Treasury, where he was Chief Economist. Before then, he was the Chief Executive of the Co-operative Bank of New Zealand for nine years.

His previous roles included General Manager at Westpac NZ, Chief Economist at the National Bank of NZ, and lecturer in Economics at Victoria University of Wellington. His academic fields of specialisation were in Monetary and Financial Economics, International Finance, Econometrics, Corporate Accounting and Finance. Professor Karacaoglu’s current research interest is in public policy – an integrated approach to economic, environmental and social policies towards improving intergenerational wellbeing.

Articles

It is all about Shared, and Sustainable, Wellbeing

By Girol Karacaoglu After quoting Thomas Jefferson (”The care of human life and happiness […] is the only legitimate object of good government”), Layard and O’Donnell (2015) go on to write: “What should be the goal of public policy? We agree with Thomas Jefferson. What matters is the quality of life, as people themselves experience it. And the best judge of each person’s life is that same person. Is she happy with her life; is she satisfied? In a democracy that should be the criterion for good policy” (p. 77). Needless to say, there are numerous other possible philosophical perspectives

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