A week is a long time in politics, as former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson once said. He may well have been right when he coined this phrase in the 1960s. Read more
Imagine that your boss gives you an intelligence test on your first day of work. The organisation groups you in a team based on your ability, as measured by the test. Read more
Around the world: The evolution of teaching as a profession is The New Zealand Initiative’s second education report. Released this week, it is the product of a six-week tour around the world to look at how other education systems deal with teacher quality. Read more
Following on from last week’s piece The costs of corruption, this Monday saw the release of Transparency International’s ambitious and highly anticipated Integrity Plus 2013: National Integrity Systems assessment (NIS). The 374-page report provides detailed insights into the national “institutions, laws, procedures, practices and attitudes that encourage and support integrity in the exercise of power”. Read more
The problem with Christmas gift giving is that it can be terribly uneconomic, with significant deadweight losses involved. Apart from the strained smiles and “thank you, this is exactly what I wanted!” exclamations upon receiving one’s 10th pair of socks, deadweight loss occurs when the recipient does not value their gift as much as the giver pays for it. Read more
Researching the housing market in New Zealand exposes you to a wide variety of ideas and different thinking. And much like Alice in Wonderland, the deeper you go down the rabbit hole, the weirder it appears to get. Read more
This week’s 2012 PISA results should have sent shockwaves down the country. New Zealand slipped from 7th to 13th place in reading, 13th to 23rd in maths, and from 7th to 18th in science in the OECD’s Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA), a study of half a million 15-year olds in 65 countries. Read more
Healthy competition is a key driver of efficiency gains. It forces businesses to focus on meeting customer needs better than anyone else. Read more
Measuring the extent to which corruption prevails worldwide is notoriously difficult. However, it is certainly not difficult to understand why corruption can have a hugely detrimental effect on a country’s economic integrity. Read more
When the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released its last World Investment Report in June this year, it was a sobering read for New Zealand. Though we may be convinced we live in one of the most attractive places in the world, it does not show in our ability to attract foreign capital. Read more
I have been spending this week in Hong Kong as a guest of the Hong Kong government. To be frank, when I received the invitation to visit the Special Administrative Region (that is the name and status after it was handed back from Britain to China in 1997), I was not quite sure why they have such a programme for international visitors (mainly politicians and business people), let alone why I would be chosen to participate in it. Read more
The Parliamentary Health Committee’s major recommendations from its ‘Inquiry into improving child health outcomes and preventing child abuse’ has been applauded for its evidence-based research. However, its recommendations still need some further consideration. Read more