Reports & Media

Director of Economics for the Infrastructure Commission, Peter Nunns, talks to Eric Crampton, Chief Economist for The New Zealand Initiative, about his research on the size and scope of local government, as well as funding and financing mechanisms. For more, please read the Infrastructure Commission’s report, authored by Peter Nunns and Nadine Dodge, “Does size matter? The impact of local government structure on cost efficiency.” Read the podcast transcript here. Read more

Central banks globally have made serious monetary policy mistakes To restore credibility, they must acknowledge and correct those mistakes Wellington (Tuesday, 26 July 2022) – A research note released today by The New Zealand Initiative mainly attributes the outbreak of inflation in many economies to central bank mistakes. Co-authored by Graeme Wheeler, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and Bryce Wilkinson, Senior Research Fellow at The New Zealand Initiative, the paper argues that central banks overall: were too confident about their monetary policy framework; were too confident about their models; were too confident they could control output and employment; lost their focus on price stability and took on too many mandates; faced conflicts in some cases with conflicting ‘dual mandate’ objectives; and were distracted by extraneous political objectives, such as climate change. Read more

The New Zealand Initiative has denounced the Reserve Bank, and other central banks for making what it says are serious mistakes which led to inflation getting out of control. The paper, released this morning, says central banks were too confident in their abilities, their policies, and their assumptions, and forgot what their core jobs were. Read more

Claims the outbreak of inflation in many economies is due to mistakes made by central banks. It comes in the form of a new paper, co-authored by former governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Graeme Wheeler, and the New Zealand Initiative's Dr. Bryce Wilkinson. Read more

Just one third of the students participating in a pilot of new literacy and numeracy assessments for NCEA passed the writing assessment, and only two thirds passed each of the reading and numeracy assessments. Michael Johnston talks to Michael Laws, The Platform about the alarming results. Read more

Oliver Hartwich interviews historians James Kierstead and Matthew Birchall, two new colleagues at the Initiative. To listen to our latest podcasts, please subscribe to The New Zealand Initiative podcast on iTunes, Spotify or The Podcast App. Read more