Jason Krupp was a Research Fellow at The New Zealand Initiative from 2013 to 2017. Before joining the Initiative, Jason was a business reporter at The Dominion Post. He previously worked for Fairfax’s Business Bureau where he was chiefly responsible for covering equity and currency markets for the group. Prior to that, he wrote for BusinessDesk, New Zealand’s only dedicated business news agency. Jason has a degree in journalism from Rhodes University, and has previously lived in Hong Kong and South Africa.
As a crude rule of thumb, presenting at a conference is always easier when you are telling the audience something it wants to hear. That was the case when I launched The Local Benchmark: When Smaller is Better at the annual Local Government New Zealand conference on Monday. Read more
That is the question that policymakers in New Zealand have been pondering for over 170 years. It is not a simple question to answer. Read more
With government about to table legislation that would allow greater amalgamation of local authorities in New Zealand, this report examines how other countries have embraced the diversity of local government to enhance their economic competitiveness. Local government plays a vital role in national productivity. Read more
The New Zealand Initiative's latest report, The Local Benchmark: When smaller is better asks the question, "What is the right size for local government?". The report looks at the cities of Manchester and Montreal and their respective approaches to devolved decision-making, and also analyses the Swiss and Dutch local governance systems. Read more
Last year, the residents of the Hawkes Bay region dodged a bullet. They were not the only ones. Read more
With most major political parties in favour of scrapping urban growth boundaries, land use regulations have captured a fair number of headlines over the past few weeks. And well they should. Read more
Our Research Fellow, Jason Krupp, talks to Larry Williams on Newstalk ZB about restrictions on land and where people are allowed to build. Read more
With just about everyone proffering advice to post-Brexit Britain, it is unlikely the country will pay attention to this piece. And nor should it, given that Britain will soon be truly free to thumb its nose at advice givers. Read more
Whether on the sports field or in the boardroom, the adage that ‘if you cannot measure something, you cannot control it’ is well known. It appears Local Government New Zealand has taken this piece of wisdom to heart with the launch of their Excellence Programme. Read more
Last week saw a rare conjunction. Almost all the political parties agreed that Auckland’s artificial rural urban boundary had to be lifted to free up land for housing development. Read more
Amid the rancorous debate about whether a land tax should be imposed on non-resident property buyers it is vital to remember what caused New Zealand’s housing crisis in the first place: a sustained lack of land supply. Far too often in the discussion on how to cool Auckland’s white-hot housing market the focus strays from this fundamental fact, and falls on demand-side factors. Read more
Our Research Fellow, Jason Krupp, discussed with Paul Henry the proposals from across the political spectrum to scrap Auckland's urban boundary in order to take pressure off high land prices. CLICK HERE to watch the video. Read more
The first rule of journalism is that “dog bites man” is not news. But “man bites dog” is worth a news story, an editorial demanding government do something about it, and an in depth feature exploring the motivations of the biter. Read more
Replace the word London for Auckland and you could be forgiven for thinking that The Economist was writing a lament about housing affordability in New Zealand’s biggest city. In an article titled “Little London”, the magazine notes that soaring property prices are dragging on the city’s economy. Read more