Reports & Media

A Radio New Zealand journalist reported in the last fortnight that other top economists privately shared Eric Crampton’s publicly expressed concerns over Treasury’s economic capability. Yesterday, Treasury’s former deputy chief economist went public on the malaise in the organisation. Read more

We all know that best policy is not paying off the kidnappers. Countries that get in the habit of paying the kidnappers encourage the taking of more of their nationals as hostages. Read more

New Zealand’s productivity track record is failing us. That was the key message delivered by the Productivity Commission’s new report, Productivity by the numbers: 2019. Read more

Economists, or at least economists of a policy-bent, like to distinguish between outputs and outcomes. Focusing on the former comes too easily at the expense of the latter, especially in the case of KiwiBuild and the Government’s overall housing supply agenda. Read more

The government has largely put the KiwiBuild and capital gains tax fiascos behind it. Next headed for the cold storage might be the recommendations of its Fair Pay Agreement working group. Read more

At its heart, Kiwibuild was a promise to end the housing crisis. The set of reforms Minister Twyford is overseeing can fulfil that promise, if he has the chance to see them through. Read more

“Nothing good happens after 3 am,” Auckland’s top-ranking police officer once said. “Facts tend to be overanalysed,” his Wellingtonian counterpart claimed. Read more

English is not my native language – not that you can tell by my German name or accent. I did learn the language, but the journey was most unusual. Read more

Denmark last Wednesday elected a Social Democrat-led government – so what else is new? Along with its Scandinavian neighbour Sweden, Denmark is the quintessential social democracy. Read more

If the Canterbury earthquakes taught us anything, it’s that the immediate response to a disaster is a very different thing from the rebuilding that has to follow. Disaster response is about triage, the good-enough, and avoiding substantial further harm. Read more

Winston Peters’ comments on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre were candid. Where Western politicians have turned not upsetting China over its human rights record into an art form, the Foreign Minister left diplomatic niceties behind. Read more

New Zealand has to slow down. At least, that was the overall message from the NZ Transport Agency’s Mega Maps data released this week. Read more