Picture this: a wealthy American couple buy a 3ha piece of land in a beautiful, sleepy town in rural New Zealand. Their plans for the land are ambitious; a redeveloped campground, information centre and community classroom. Read more
New Zealand is one of the world’s most expensive places to live. While there are a lot of reasons for that, a pretty substantial underlying reason is the country’s small population. Read more
Bloomberg has just published its list of the 15 most miserable economies in the world for 2015. Misery is measured as the sum of the unemployment rate and the inflation rate. Read more
This week Forbes released its 2015 billionaires list. There are 290 new billionaires in the world this year, including Travis Kalanick and Brian Chesky. Read more
It is fair to say that New Zealand and Portugal are not particularly close nations. Yes, there were a few Portuguese whalers in 19th century New Zealand but according to the latest census the NZ Portuguese population is estimated to be just under 1,000 people -- or roughly 0.02 per cent of the total population. Read more
There are two things that the changes currently shaking up the media sector can teach us. The first is that the digital transition process is painful. Read more
In two weeks the New Zealand Initiative releases its centerpiece report on economic growth. It may seem counterintuitive, but the researchers here at the Initiative don’t actually think it’s the government’s job to grow the economy. Read more
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE) has hired Crown research institute NIWA to draw up coastal hazard lines. Yet the 2012 hazard line guidance co-authored by NIWA staff fails to define, even in principle, what likelihood such lines are meant to represent, let alone justify that choice in cost-benefit terms. The folly of coastal hazard lines of unknown likelihood and net benefit is illustrated by the experience in 2012-14 of the Kapiti Coast District Council. Read more
When Harvard economist Ed Glaeser delivered a public lecture on urban economics in Christchurch in 2013, hosted by Canterbury’s Department of Economics and Finance, he was asked whether Christchurch would really recover. The question wasn’t crazy. Read more
As widely reported this week, Auckland Council’s economic development arm has created a posting for one of its senior executives in London. Costing ratepayers a total of $230,000 over the course of a year, the city’s new ambassador Grant Jenkins is meant to promote better links between Auckland and London. Read more
All too often, China cops an unfair amount of criticism when it comes to foreign investment in New Zealand. Rationally, this is quite bizarre, not least because our existing regulatory barriers prevent risky – or even beneficial – investments from occurring in the first place, but also because investments originating from China make up such a small portion of the total. Read more
It is probably a sign of my generation that I struggle to fathom how researchers and experts spread their ideas before the internet. I suppose people read books, attended public presentations, and simply gained knowledge through direct conversation. Read more
It was more than a little bizarre when news broke on early Saturday morning that Greece and the eurozone had reached an agreement in their dispute over the country’s debt and bailout program. What was so strange about the deal was the fact that it was announced much earlier than anyone had anticipated. Read more
Much is made of New Zealand’s savings culture, or more accurately the lack thereof, which is presumably why the government established the Commission for Financial Capability (CFC). The Crown-owned entity, formerly known as the Centre for Financial Literacy and Retirement Income (say that three times fast), is tasked with giving financially vulnerable people the skills to become money savvy. Read more
New Zealand is not a cheap place to live – for a lot of reasons. We’re far from a lot of major markets, so shipping goods here can be expensive. Read more