MEDIA

Chief economist Dr Eric Crampton spoke on Newstalk ZB about the Government signing a memorandum of understanding with Amazon for a 25% subsidy on its Lord of the Rings TV series. He says film subsidy regimes are wasteful competition as countries scramble to attract film producers. Read more

The New Zealand Initiative has welcomed the National Party’s announcement of its housing policy and legislation. “Housing affordability is all about supply. Read more

Policy Analyst Joel Hernandez spoke to The Project about his research on the state of schooling in New Zealand, which looked at the effectiveness across state, state-integrated, and private schools. In his report, Joel said in order to improve our education system, the Ministry of Education must learn which schools are bucking the trend and overcoming socioeconomic barriers. Read more

Tuesday’s announcement of new housing policies from the Government has just made New Zealand a far riskier place to do business, warns a policy paper released today by The New Zealand Initiative. A risky place to do business, written by Dr Eric Crampton and Dr Bryce Wilkinson does not assess the effects of these policies, rather it warns of the consequences of this approach to policy-making. Read more

The Climate Change Commission has made no convincing case for its sweeping economic reforms to reduce emissions, says Matt Burgess, Senior Economist at The New Zealand Initiative. Analysis by the Climate Change Commission shows current policies, including the Emissions Trading Scheme (“ETS”), will deliver New Zealand’s emissions targets. Read more

Research Assistant Leonard Hong joined Bernard Hickey for an interview to discuss his latest report, The Need to Build: Demographic drivers of the housing market. In the report, Leonard Hong modelled 36 scenarios and found that New Zealand's population gets older and larger by 2038. Read more

At the New Zealand Economics Forum 2021, held at the University of Waikato, Matt Burgess participated in a panel discussion on Economic policy and the environment - challenges and opportunities. You can read Matt's full speech below. Read more

Watch Dr Eric Crampton, Cameron Bagrie, Professor Paul Dalziel's panel session, Getting the mix right: Monetary policy, fiscal policy and the wellbeing of the nation, from the New Zealand Economics Forum 2021 held at the University of Waikato.

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A well-functioning education system is vital to equip our children for life. However, a new report from The New Zealand Initiative says it is not clear whether the education system is serving our children as well as it should. Read more

A well-functioning education system is vital to equip our children for life. Educational Performance and Funding in New Zealand: Are our children getting the education they deserve? Read more

The nationwide housing shortage and soaring prices are only going to get worse. Leonard Hong, author of our The Need to Build report, tells Kathryn Ryan on Radio NZ that demand-side solutions such as the bright-line test are just tinkering around the edges. Read more

The New Zealand Initiative welcomes today’s call from business leaders for greater clarity about the border. The Initiative also urges the government to further strengthen the testing regime at the border. Read more

The Government’s announcement of a review into Pharmac declares that its budget, and the total amount allocated to pharmaceuticals, will be out of scope. This ignores the most serious weakness with current arrangements: that no one really knows whether they are improving health outcomes, let alone the well-being of New Zealanders, according to a substantial report, Pharmac: The right prescription? Read more

Eric Crampton talks to Bryan Crump on Radio NZ Nights about urban land use planning systems and if they are fit for purpose. Eric would like to see more localised planning powers and points to a report by a UK think tank Policy Exchange called Strong Suburbs: Enabling streets to control their own development. Read more