If economists are perceived to be a bit dry and dusty, Benje Patterson, who only turned 36 last Sunday, certainly breaks the mould. The
Arrowtowner, who’s no stranger to running all night with a head torch, discusses his life and times with PHILIP CHANDLER
If you follow news about the New Zealand economy, you’ll have come across Benje Patterson.
He’s that rare breed, an independent economist who’s as well known as many of NZ’s bank economists and, even rarer, doesn’t live in Auckland or Wellington, but little old Arrowtown.
That’s not a huge surprise given his love of the outdoors and the fact he frequently holidayed in the Whakatipu during his Invercargill upbringing.
During his last year at James Hargest College, he became fascinated by economics.
‘‘It’s like, economics is basically just a way of describing how everything you see every day fits together.’’
Earlier, he’d been on a student exchange in Denmark and, choosing to learn the nearest language you could study at school, German, continued studying it, along with economics, at Otago University.
He was then selected for a scholarship at a German uni, where he spent two years doing his masters.
He specifically studied ‘political economy’, relating to the influence governments have over an economy.
After university, he took a Wellington-based job with economic consultancy Infometrics.
Within weeks he was doing media interviews on economic matters, which was initially ‘‘quite nerve-wracking’’.
One of his strengths has been communicating in plain English.
Some other economists, he says, can be a ‘‘a little bit condescending’’ and hide behind jargon and maths.
Initially he specialised in macro economics, which he felt was ‘‘quite soul-destroying, I felt quite disconnected from what’s happening on the ground’’.
Fortunately, the company decided to also focus on regional economics, which he enjoyed.
‘‘The most enriching part was helping clients use [economic] information for themselves to make their decisions, rather than grandstanding about economics.’’
Patterson shifted to Queenstown with his wife, Maddy, about six years ago.
At first he worked remotely for Infometrics, but then felt he was having to split his focus between his personal life here and professional life elsewhere so, after eight years with them, decided to go out on his own, about four years ago.
‘‘It’s been quite an awesome ride, it’s just evolved kind of quite organically through the relationships I’ve had and the projects I get involved in.’’
Going through Covid certainly challenged his textbook learnings about economics, but, he notes, ‘‘a state of change is good business’’.
One major change was, pre-Covid, he used to travel at least once a week — corporate boards, he says, ‘‘were never comfortable with you dialling in to give your presentation’’.
Now, however, he travels only about once a month, boards now being happy if he dials in from Arrowtown.
‘‘It gives me the gift of time, and it also saves them money.’’
About two years ago he and his family — his children are now five, three and one — moved to Arrowtown, which is ideal for his outdoors lifestyle.
Patterson says he got into running with his dad when he was only five or six and was running half marathons by eight, till he was advised he was too young.
He later got into multisport, and won the two-day Coast to Coast race when he was 19.
After a break, he got back into running in his late 20s/early 30s.
Quickly, 10-minute jogs around the block became one-, two-, five-, 10-, then 20-hour runs.
He’d been training for his first 100-miler at The Wild run, behind Arrowtown, next month, before the event company went under, ‘‘spending nights running through the hills with a head torch’’.
Aside from the outdoors, Patterson says he also appreciates Arrowtown’s ‘‘sense of community’’.
‘‘I think that’s really important, and not every part of the district that’s gone through really high recent growth has this.’’
An Arrowtown Promotion and Business Association board member, he shares others’ concerns the town’s high property prices could lessen the diversity of the town’s population.
As a result, he says the community trust’s affordable housing development on Jopp Street is ‘‘absolutely fantastic’’.
‘‘We really, really need that.’’
