The European debt and growth crisis has seemingly divided the continent into saints and sinners. On the one hand, there are the profligate, lazy, unproductive countries of the European periphery, unflatteringly abbreviated as the PIIGS. Read more
When 2,300 business leaders and government officials met for the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong this week, they were asked to vote on what they saw as the greatest threat to the world economy. Opinions were divided between troubles in emerging markets (52 per cent) and the withdrawal of monetary stimulus by the US Federal Reserve (32 per cent). Read more
This year may not turn out to be a historic year for Europe but one thing is certain: it will be a year full of historical commemorations. All in one, 2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain, the 75th anniversary of the Second World War, the centenary of the First World War – and the 5th year of the euro crisis. Read more
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
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
Teachers are New Zealand’s most important educational asset. This report is the second in a series of three, building on the first - World Class Education: Why New Zealand Must Strengthen Its Teaching Profession, which identified some of the main structural problems preventing New Zealand’s teaching workforce from developing further. 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
Wellington (9 Dec 2013): To lift students’ academic achievement, New Zealand needs to take heed of how countries with high performing education systems have turned teaching into a profession. That is the message of the think tank’s latest report Around the World: The Evolution of Teaching as a Profession, a comparative study that examines how Singapore, Germany, Finland, England, Canada and Australia are focusing on teachers to deliver better educational outcomes. 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