There were three things I was looking for in this week's pandemic budget announcement. I was not disappointed. Read more
Eric Crampton joins Radio New Zealand's The Panel to talk about the coronavirus economic package released by the government to help mitigate the impact of border restrictions. Read more
Wellington, 16 March 2020 - The New Zealand Initiative welcomes the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s move to cut interest rates and suspend the tightening of bank capital requirements. However, the Initiative’s Chief Economist Dr Eric Crampton warns that more will be necessary. Read more
We might look abroad to see how a similar rule to that proposed by Simon Bridges to slash regulations has panned out, and not in completely mad places either – or at least not in the world’s more obvious madhouses. In 2001, the Liberal Party of British Columbia, Canada, was elected into office on the promise of regulatory reform. Read more
Nearly a decade ago, historian Niall Ferguson coined the term “Chimerica” to describe what he saw as the obvious and symbiotic relationship emerging between China and America. Most people would laugh today at the idea of the two Pacific heavyweights as economic and political partners. Read more
What happened in Italy this week could tempt us to feel smug. Surely, the decision to put the whole country into lockdown must be an exaggeration. Read more
What if the principal and chair of trustees of each of New Zealand’s 500 secondary schools received a report every year that cut through the noise to show exactly how their school was performing? Crucially, this report would be objective, data-driven and fair, because it adjusts for the unique community of students each school serves. Read more
Some of us have been training for a scenario like this our entire lives! Coronavirus has hit and in the early public reaction to the outbreak, there are already talks of a possible nation-wide quarantine or “self-isolation” policy. Read more
The Prime Minister called 2019 “the year of delivery.” Later this year, voters will deliver their verdict on that statement and promise. At the Initiative, it was definitely a year of delivery for us. Read more
If your school has strong NCEA results, is it because it’s performing well, or because it serves a lot of children from more privileged backgrounds? Schools with identical NCEA outcomes could have wildly different performance if one of them got there through extraordinary efforts to overcome the disadvantages that its students brought with them to class. Read more
Welcome to this week’s New Zealand Initiative podcast with chief editor Nathan Smith. Policy analyst Joel Hernandez joins the stream to discuss the latest developments with his school performance tool. Read more
Travel bans bought New Zealand a little time, nothing more. We hope the Government is using this time well to prepare for the more widespread Covid-19 outbreak that seems likely to arrive, sometime. Read more
There is no doubt that COVID-19 will impact global economies. The Project has asked some of the country’s smartest financial experts, including our Chief Economist Eric Crampton, for their advice on how people can keep their money safe. Read more
To start with a disclaimer, I am not a medical expert. I have no degree in epidemiology, nor can I claim any expertise in public health management. Read more
Wellington, 6 March 2020 – A groundbreaking new tool could give parents and principals the first objective measurement of New Zealand school performance, says a new report released today by The New Zealand Initiative. Insights and Excellence: School success in New Zealand demonstrates the quality of information, analysis and reporting that could be provided to every parent and principal in the country using the data already collected by the Ministry of Education and other government agencies. Read more