Professorial Lecture by Professor Michael Cameron

'Beyond the Buzz: The Sobering Economics of Alcohol' by Professor Michael Cameron

About this lecture:
New Zealand has a long history with alcohol dating back to 1773, when Captain Cook’s men brewed the country’s first craft beer using mānuka plants in Fiordland.

More than 250 years later, alcohol consumption has become well entrenched in New Zealand’s cultural landscape and led to a significant impact on our rates of crime, violence, injuries and accidents.

In this fascinating public lecture at the University of Waikato on 26 March, Professor Michael Cameron will present insights from his research into some of the societal issues associated with the sale and distribution of alcohol.

Professor Michael Cameron is an economist in the University’s Waikato Management School, and a Research Associate in Te Ngira – the Institute for Population Research.

In recent years, his work has focused on research funded by the Health Promotion Agency that seeks to shed light on the complex relationship between the geographic location of alcohol outlets, competition in liquor prices, people’s drinking behaviour, and crime rates.

Following the government’s reduction of the drink-driving limit in December 2014, on one occasion this research involved hanging outside Hamilton bars at night to breath-test people and survey them to find out how intoxicated they thought they were.

His findings have informed parliamentary debates in Wellington, and the Law Commission’s review of the Sale of Liquor Act in 2010. He is also a District Licensing Commissioner for Waikato and Waitomo Districts, and on the District Licensing Committees for Waipā and Otorohanga Districts.

Professor Cameron began his academic career as a tutor in the University’s economics department back in 2002, and was later appointed as a teaching fellow and then lecturer.

He has always had a keen interest in public health issues, choosing to study the relationship between poverty and HIV/AIDS in rural Thailand for his PhD thesis.

Since then, his journey has taken him across a wide array of economic landscapes, from studying migration trends and population projections, through to measuring the impacts of poverty on wellbeing, population and agricultural land-use change related to climate, the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on higher education students, financial literacy among high school students, and whether social media can predict election results.

Professor Cameron’s research has seen him conduct fieldwork in many different countries, including China, India, Pakistan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Timor Leste.

In addition, Professor Cameron has received six awards for outstanding teaching from the University of Waikato, and he was nominated for a National Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award in 2014.

It’s fair to say that the impact of his research resonates far beyond the confines of the lecture hall.

Event details:
This 45-minute public lecture will be held at the Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, starting at 5.45pm. Opus Bar will be open from 5pm.

Free parking is available on campus via Gate 2B, Knighton Road, Hamilton from 4.30pm.

Please register your attendance and bring your eticket with you on the evening to be scanned.