Most of the country is still reeling from the drastic lockdown response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The major cities are hurting, but it’s not until one travels to rural New Zealand that the simmering economic issues appear. Read more
With the appointment of Judith Collins as leader of the National Party, folk across the political spectrum hope the party is beginning to re-emerge as a genuine counterpoint to the current Labour-led government. New Zealand Initiative director Oliver Hartwich explains why Collins may be what National needs and why the political position of conservatism is so difficult to get excited about in a globalised world. Read more
Pulling New Zealand out of the fiscal hole opened up by Covid-19 will require a lot of new spending, which the government has already announced. But the crisis also offers the country a chance to rethink its expensive retirement schemes like Kiwisaver, the New Zealand Superannuation and the Superannuation Fund. Read more
The concept of modern monetary theory is back. This set of economic ideas has been around for a while but has risen to prominence recently through the work of American economist and adviser to Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, Stephanie Kelton, whose book 'The Deficit Myth' was released in June. Read more
On this week’s New Zealand Initiative podcast, Kiwis are set to vote in a referendum to legalise cannabis on September 19. It’s a controversial topic for some, but chief economist Dr Eric Crampton says thinking about cannabis from an economic perspective can help clear up many misconceptions and worries. Read more
On this week’s podcast, reports this week show that New Zealand’s quarantine protocols are not as robust as people thought and the question of what to do about protecting the border from fresh Covid-19 cases is now front and centre. Our chief economist Dr Eric Crampton is outlining a gold standard quarantine system which may need to involve the private sector and require a deep rethink from the Government. Read more
In just a few months, Covid-19 travelled from China to more than 200 other countries, has now killed more than 330,000 people, forced organisations and individuals to embrace new practices such as remote working and plenty of tech shifts. The term “frequent flyer” will now be an anachronism and many think the pandemic spelled the death of market economies and globalisation. Read more
The Covid-19 crisis has quickly evolved from a health issue into an economic threat. The science was largely clear about what should be done to combat a pandemic, although historians will be the judge of those decisions, but there are plenty of competing ideas now about how to protect the economy after a pandemic. Read more
To prepare for the next pandemic, New Zealand has plenty to learn. But only a handful of developed countries might offer some key lessons, since most nations have been hit hard by Covid-19. Read more
As the country looks for ways to recover from the Covid-19 recession, the government is tweaking a few rules to help it along. One of its actions was to amend the Overseas Investment Act, or OIA. Read more
As the Covid-19 crisis evolves towards something like a conclusion, a handful of East Asian countries have been standout examples of how to deal with a pandemic. Taiwan is one of those countries. Read more
The world has had mixed success containing Covid-19 with Singapore as a standout example during the early phases of the pandemic. Our Research Assistant Leonard Hong talks to chief editor Nathan Smith about Singapore’s approach and shares the lessons for New Zealand. Read more
Our chief editor Nathan Smith is joined by chief economist Dr Eric Crampton and senior fellow Dr Bryce Wilkinson. In this week’s podcast, they discuss whether the Government’s Covid-19 cost-benefit analysis and subsequent lockdown is economically sound. Read more
The Government’s response to the global coronavirus pandemic is expected to lead to a deep recession. Many companies are faced with laying off employees. Read more
In this week’s episode of the New Zealand Initiative podcast, chief editor Nathan Smith sits down with Bella d’Abrera to discuss the ideas behind the international progressive movement. Dr d'Abrera is the Director of the Foundations of Western Civilisation Programme at the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne. Read more