Reports & Media

Roughly coinciding with the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008, anti-capitalism has enjoyed a global renaissance. The critics of capitalism may be quite diverse, but for many of them rising wealth and income inequality is a commonly shared concern. Read more

Recently, Transportblog.co.nz bemoaned the fact that Auckland CBD was running out of office space.The pro-transit and compact city advocacy group is concerned because central government is insisting that certain rail usage and CBD employment targets be met before it co-funds the $2.9 billion City Rail Project. These targets include the doubling of rail patronage to 20 million trips a year, and lifting the number of people employed in the CBD by 25 per cent (or 22,000 jobs) if the city wants the project to start in 2020. Read more

The biographies of top economists indicate that they were often motivated to study economics in order to be better able to contribute to the common good. But what is meant by the common good and what policies contribute to it? Read more

Last week some Aucklanders in the double grammar school zone (Auckland Grammar and Epsom Girls’) were upset to see that One Tree College and Selwyn College were looking at including them in their school zones too. They fear this may lead to Auckland Grammar and Epsom Girls’ shrinking their school zones, excluding their children from entry to these sought-after schools. Read more

What is the raison d’etre of a city? Is it to provide parks and cafes, theatres and libraries? Read more

Two years ago, three words by the European Central Bank’s President Mario Draghi ended the panic around the euro crisis: “Whatever it takes”. When Draghi said these words at an event in London -- meaning that his institution was prepared to use unconventional (and potentially unlimited) ways to stabilise the euro system -- it halted the escalating crisis. Read more

Last night, The New Zealand Initiative released a new book, New Zealand by Numbers. Its first aim is to counter the perception that New Zealand is a country riddled with problems. Instead, it celebrates positive developments within our nation that happen too slowly to make the headlines. Read more

Among the raft of data our researchers have compiled for New Zealand by Numbers, there are quite a few surprising facts about New Zealand. Most of us would be aware of the big trends facing this country: the changing face of our population, our increasing interaction with Asia, or the increasing importance of digital technology for the way in which we communicate and receive our news. Read more

Economics would be a pale imitation of itself without volatility, or at the very least about as stimulating as watching paint dry. Luckily the world is a complicated place, where prices fluctuate for various reasons, and this, for the most part, is a good thing. Read more

An article recently published by the New Zealand Listener, Child support that works, asserts that the existing system of child support "is next to useless at reducing poverty" - because, to a large extent "Government simply takes the child support to offset the benefit".Yet this is exactly what should happen if the purpose of the benefit is to top up inadequate child-support payments by non-custodial parents. Child-support payments allow more children to be supported than could be funded otherwise. Read more

At first glance, the following two news stories may seem like they have nothing to do with each other except that they happened over the past few days. On Monday, the International Monetary Fund once again admonished Germany for being too competitive, as demonstrated by its enormous current account surplus. Read more

Only a handful of phrases that instantly provoke an angry reaction from me. And while I am grateful the list is limited, some entries are now common. Read more

This year both National and Labour announced education policies that aim to strengthen school leadership and collaboration. National is putting far more resource behind their policy, but Labour has a big advantage: they are better at getting buy-in from teachers. Read more

Perhaps it is a sign that I am getting old(er) but I am just astonished by the speed of technological progress. The most recent example is a memory card I ordered for my new smartphone. Read more