Our Chief Economist Eric Crampton and Max Rashbrooke joined TVNZ Breakfast to discuss the political parties' economic policies in the lead up to the election. Read more
The rise of automation, artificial intelligence and pressures from developing economies are threatening low-skilled and unskilled jobs. Never has the need for school leavers to be well-educated been more important than today. Read more
Wealth taxes are tricky things. Even leaving aside the complications in real-world applications that caused the OECD to recommend against them, wealth taxes have an additional pernicious effect. Read more
New Zealand faces its worst recession in nearly a century. Unfortunately, the economic response to the challenges of covid-19 leaves much to be desired. Read more
New Zealand faces its worst recession in nearly a century. Unfortunately, the economic response to the challenges of Covid-19 leaves much to be desired. Read more
It took New Zealand to disprove the entire body of political science. For millennia, political philosophy was thought to be about the dual question of who rules and for what purpose. Read more
In this week’s New Zealand Initiative podcast, as the country prepares to weather what could be a particularly bad recession, it needs plenty of good ideas. Unfortunately, those good ideas are few and far between. Read more
It took eighteen years for New Zealand’s school system to plunge from world-leading to decidedly average. Despite a concurrent 32% real rise in per-pupil spending, in maths, Kiwi 15-year-olds now perform the way 13 and a half year-olds did just 20 years ago. Read more
New Zealand faces its worst recession in nearly a century. Unfortunately, the economic response to the challenges of Covid-19 leaves much to be desired. Read more
Wellington, 7 October 2020 – Over the next few years, New Zealand will face an immense challenge to keep Kiwi’s employed, get the economy growing again and rein in debt. According to a report by The New Zealand Initiative, there is also an important opportunity to fix the worst social and economic ills that have plagued this country for decades. Read more
New Zealand looks to have won its second battle against Covid-19. The country should brace itself for another round of self-congratulatory backslapping. Read more
There is a rot at the core of schooling in New Zealand. The Ministry of Education follows unscientific advice and is in thrall to a flawed philosophy. Read more
Wellington, 7 October 2020 - If the major political parties were taking climate change seriously, they would rely on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) not add wasteful targets, says The New Zealand Initiative chief economist Dr Eric Crampton. Today, the Labour party unveiled its promise to mandate zero-emission buses by 2025 and to ban some new coal-fired boilers. Read more
Briar Lipson's new book New Zealand’s Education Delusion: How bad ideas ruined a once world-leading school system explains why there is a rot at the core of schooling in New Zealand. The report found that educational standards have plummeted over the past two decades. Read more
Wellington, 6 October 2020 – New Zealand’s education system is a mess, riddled with unscientific ideas and seduced by child-centred orthodoxy, according to a new report by The New Zealand Initiative. Falling from its height as the envy of the world just twenty years ago, the Ministry of Education has let New Zealand’s education system unravel by turning the focus away from teaching knowledge and on to 21st-century “competencies.” In a comprehensive new report, New Zealand’s Education Delusion: How bad ideas ruined a once world-leading school system, author Briar Lipson traces how the country’s schooling system lost its way and provides solutions for correcting the dangerous path. Read more