How do markets and governments operate in education and what is the best way to organise, finance and regulate education? Mark Harrison assesses the performance of the New Zealand school sector, the impact of the reforms of the 1980s and 1990s, and current government spending policies. Read more
Economics has been called the dismal science. But, in modern times at least, it has tended to be environmentalists rather than economists who have put forward a dismal view of the world. Read more
A New Deal is a manifesto for New Zealand’s schools, one with great potential to raise education standards and expectations for every child. It takes stock of the fundamental strengths and weaknesses of our present education system and what is needed to lift the quality of education standards, close the large performance gap between underprivileged schools and their better-off peers, and make New Zealand a stronger competitor in the global marketplace. Read more
There has been much debate over the appropriate level and form of government support for tertiary education, but comparatively little analysis of the merits of the underlying policies. Who Should Pay? Read more
In Losing Sight of the Lodestar of Economic Freedom Wolfgang Kasper looks at New Zealand's economic performance since the reforms of the 1980s and explores why the economy has not produced faster and more sustained growth. Even though a recent New Zealand Treasury briefing to the incoming government reports that "? Read more
This collection of speeches, submissions and articles is the eighteenth in a series produced by the New Zealand Business Roundtable (NZBR). The previous volumes in the series were Economic and Social Policy (1989), Sustaining Economic Reform (1990), Building a Competitive Economy (1991), From Recession to Recovery (1992), Towards an Enterprise Culture (1993), The Old New Zealand and the New (1994), The Next Decade of Change (1994), Growing Pains (1995), Why Not Simply the Best? Read more
In the early 1990s, the World Bank identified four prerequisites for achieving sustainable economic growth: sound macroeconomic policies; competitive domestic markets and openness to international trade; more and better private and public investment in people; and achieving the ‘right’ balance between the roles of the public and private sectors. This paper considers the fourth of these prerequisites for growth: achieving the best balance between the public and private sectors. Read more
There is no summary available. Read more
One of the challenges faced by Australasia – that is, Australia and New Zealand – is the additional costs of doing business with the rest of the developed world, and vice versa. These costs go beyond the obvious – for transport and communications – to the costs of the infrastructure required to service customers and business partners, as well as of tapping global capital markets. Read more
I have come half-way around the world but I feel very much at home, with people who share not only a common language, but so much of my inherited experience. We are the descendents of the common law, of Magna Carta, of David Hume and John Locke. Read more
This collection of speeches, submissions and articles is the seventeenth in a series produced by the New Zealand Business Roundtable. The material in this volume is organised in six sections: economic directions; fiscal policy and the public sector; industry policy and regulation; education and the labour market; social policy and miscellaneous. Read more
Bryce Wilkinson examines the effects of poor quality laws and regulations on New Zealand society and outlines the case for regulatory reform. His proposals include a governmental review of major regulations and better regulatory analysis and, in the future, a Regulatory Responsibility Act to achieve principled scrutiny of new regulations. Read more
By comparison with some other countries, New Zealand relies heavily on education and health services and retirement income support provided by governments and financed through taxation. Much government education and health expenditure benefits families with moderate to high current incomes. Read more
Why should we care about the size of government? There are many reasons to be concerned, but the most obvious answer is that high levels of government spending and taxation suppress economic performance, which is the basis of material living standards. Read more