There’s a weird art to commissioned cost-benefit assessments. Even when it seems like a report’s funder really wanted a particular result and even if the final number seems absurd, the report can still be valuable. Read more
When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand's first-world status was at stake. Read more
Once upon a time, it was the role of parliaments to make laws, governments to execute them, and the role of courts to uphold them. Civil Law jurisdictions, such as those in Europe, do not share the Anglosphere’s tradition of judge-made law (known as the ‘Common Law’). Read more
Adam Smith warned that meetings of people of the same trade quickly turn into conspiracies against the public or contrivances to raise prices. He neglected to mention the benefits of meetings of people from vastly different trades. Read more
New Zealand has an obsession with size. Maybe the inferiority complex of a small country makes politicians and policymakers assume bigger must be better. Read more
Last week the Commerce Commission announced its concern with a proposed merger between Foodstuffs North Island and Foodstuffs South Island. Their concern is a decrease in competition in the market. Read more
Good ideas often take time to gain traction. Congestion charging is no exception. Read more
If you are an Australian struggling to afford a home, I have good news from across the ditch: New Zealand is building its way out of its housing crisis. And the solutions being pioneered here also offer a roadmap for solving Australia’s housing woes. Read more
The way the government tries to protect us against earthquake risks, and to protect heritage buildings against change, share a common problem. Government agencies have a very difficult time generating the information necessary for making good decisions in both cases. Read more
American supply-side conservatives got one big thing right two decades ago, but they got a bigger thing wrong. And it’s relevant to current debates about our Coalition Government’s proposed tax cuts. Read more
It was a picture worth a thousand words. Four or five stooped, scared-looking figures on an aeroplane, black hoods over their heads. Read more
New Zealand is facing enormous challenges. We’re mired in recession. Read more
It has been reported that the Minister is considering public-private partnerships to build schools. In fact, though, all school builds are effectively public-private partnerships. Read more
The cancellation of KiwiRail’s $3 billion upgrade of the decrepit fleet of Cook Strait ferries provides an opportunity to finally build what New Zealand really needs: the Cook Strait Bridge. This 27-kilometre monument to Kiwi ingenuity would show the world that we’re serious about infrastructure – and provide a handy escape hatch for those fleeing Wellington. Read more
New Zealand has finally achieved a free trade agreement with the EU. It was years in the making. Read more