Last week’s NATO summit in Vilnius was supposed to be about Ukraine’s needs and whether they would be met. Zelenskiy wanted guarantees for future NATO membership and the military alliance wanted to present a united front to Putin. Read more
Meetings of the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF) are a regular fixture in the calendars of Australian and New Zealand business leaders and politicians. But their content has also become regular – which is to say, repetitive. Read more
The early decades of the 21st century may be remembered as the great age of misinformation. From false assertions about the size of the 45th President’s inauguration crowd to science-free claims about nano-technology, 5G cell phone towers and COVID-19, fake news abounds. Read more
One bit of the Climate Commission’s draft advice, released in March, seemed particularly strange. The Commission worried that a surge in forest planting over the coming years would bring about a collapse in ETS prices in the 2030s and put New Zealand’s net zero commitments beyond 2050 at risk. Read more
Experimental psychology was a bit wild in the 1960s. Scientists would run experiments on beagles, giving them painful shocks. Read more
NZQA would like help deciding what excellence means. The trouble is, too many students have been achieving it. Read more
The Prime Minister has ruled out a wealth tax so long as he is leader of the Labour Party. The promise may have been driven by recent polling, but it is sound economics nevertheless. Read more
According to American folklore, Irish gold miners were notorious for striking it lucky. Yet, historian Edward O’Donnell claims the phrase ‘The luck of the Irish’ comes with a hint of derision. Read more
There are no silver bullets in housing and infrastructure policy. Too many separate problems compound, resulting in a severe housing shortage and some of the world’s least affordable housing. Read more
Sometimes, a debate over the school curriculum gets so heated, it is dubbed a ‘curriculum war’. A new draft science curriculum has been the subject of a national conversation over the past week or so. Read more
Wellington (Tuesday, 11 July 2023) – The New Zealand Initiative’s new report suggests better tools for infrastructure funding and financing. Chief economist Dr Eric Crampton argues infrastructure funding and financing are a root cause of New Zealand’s housing shortage. Read more
In this week’s podcast, Dr Eric Crampton continues his conversation with Professor Rhema Vaithianathan from Auckland University of Technology. This fascinating discussion tackles the world of data integration within social services, and critiques past failures, citing a need for real-life stories rather than cold, hard data. Read more
It’s a sad running gag that the best way for a Kiwi to get noticed at home is to be successful abroad. The keynote lecture at this year’s New Zealand Economics Association conference was downright depressing. Read more
Background Yesterday the Treasury hosted a seminar on New Zealand’s lagging productivity growth rate. It shared the slot with the New Zealand Productivity Commission (NZPC) and Motu, a Wellington-based research institute. Read more
Join us this week on the New Zealand Initiative podcast! Our host, Dr Eric Crampton chats with Professor Rhema Vaithianathan from Auckland University of Technology. Read more