The thing I miss least about being in academia is the administration. I don’t mean faculty governance – it is important that academics be involved in that lest everything be taken over by the administrators. Read more

Our executive director at the New Zealand Initiative, Oliver Hartwich, has always had a strange antique monkey’s paw on his desk. I never thought much of it – perhaps a bit creepy but maybe it’s normal for Germans. Read more

For some pundits, elections are magical times in which pundits’ favourite policy hobby-horses transform into the election-winning platform for any party that might listen. I will recommend something a little different for Labour’s incoming leader. Read more

The announcement of a new way of funding urban infrastructure is a bit like announcing a way of clearing that first big slip on the road from Kaikoura to Blenheim. It’s an important and necessary start but it is only a start. Read more

Peter Jackson took a few liberties with Tolkien’s text for the Lord of the Rings films. Most of them, I didn’t like. But one addition I rather liked came at the start. Read more

If your main exposure to economics is hearing bank economists talk on morning radio, you might not have the most accurate picture of what economists do. Trying to guess what interest rates might do, or telling stories about the latest moves in the stock market, are not really what economics is about. Read more

The Commerce Commission now has more powers to investigate competition issues in any area where it thinks there might be a problem. In this week’s National Business Review, the Initiative’s Chair, Roger Partridge, argues this was a bad idea. Read more

This week, members of the Law and Economics Association were treated to dinner and a show. Or something close to it. Read more

In Damon Knight’s classic science-fiction short story, helpful aliens provide Earth with unlimited energy and plenty of food. The aliens even have a manual titled, “How to Serve Man.” It all seems too good to be true – until a translator works out the book’s first paragraph and sees it is not your traditional alien butler’s training guide. Read more

Last week brought some hope that this year’s election would have a stronger policy focus. The OECD released its report on the state of the New Zealand, and the moves necessary to improve outcomes in education, productivity and economic growth. Read more