For years, we have been warned that New Zealand is facing a manufacturing crisis. The Kiwi dollar’s high exchange rate would hurt exporters and drive industrial activities out of New Zealand. Read more
Wellington (23 March 2015): Central government needs to fulfil its long-neglected Resource Management Act obligations if it wants to boost mining activity and free communities from the stifling regulations that are choking off economic development in the rural regions. That is the main finding of From Red Tape to Green Gold, the second report in a two-part series by public policy think tank The New Zealand Initiative, which examines how regulation has prevented almost any form of mineral development in a country that ranks among the richest in the world on measures of resource endowment. Read more
Research Fellow, Jason Krupp, of The New Zealand Initiative, launches his second report on regulation and resource extraction in New Zealand. Read more
Senior Fellow Dr Bryce Wilkinson discusses The New Zealand Initiative's work on foreign direct investment in New Zealand. Read more
Rose Patterson discusses her work on education at public policy think tank The New Zealand Initiative. Read more
In just over a week’s time we will find out whether all the work that Environment Minister Nick Smith and his team have put into the latest round of Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms will ever see the light of day. That is when voters in Northland will decide whether to let the National Party maintain its effective majority in Parliament or opt for a bit of something different in the form of Winston Peters and New Zealand First. Read more
Wellington (20 March 2015): Applying GST on low-value imports could easily backfire and end up doing more harm than good for the economy, The New Zealand Initiative warned today. Head of Research, economist Dr Eric Crampton said applying GST at the border only makes sense if there is a way of doing it that neither deters foreign retailers from shipping to New Zealand, nor imposes substantial hassles on Kiwis importing goods from abroad, nor proves too expensive to collect. Read more
You all know The New Zealand Initiative as a great little think tank for a great little country. You might not know that we are also a membership organisation: our work is supported by our members. Read more
Recently the Education and Science Committee reported on its Inquiry into engaging parents in the education of their children. Reading through its myriad recommendations, it becomes clear all are on the supply side. Read more
Only kamikaze cyclists would choose to cycle in Wellington. Known for its steep, winding roads barely wide enough for a Reliant Robin let alone two lanes, parked vehicles and a bus. Read more
When the new Greek government took office in late January, I wondered whether they might be trying to play the ‘madman strategy’ in a game of chicken (The euro crisis has become a game of chicken, January 29). Behaving erratically and seemingly irrationally, so I wrote, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his finance minister Yanis Varoufakis might just drive the other Europeans to insanity -- and force them to surrender to prevent the worst. Read more
"Are They Drinking our Milk or Eating our Lunch?" The New Zealand Economy in a Changing Asia-Pacific The papers are full of quantitative easing and exchange rate volatility. But there are much bigger changes underway in the Asia-Pacific economies. Read more
Research Fellow Jason Krupp discusses New Zealand's mineral and resource estate. Read more
Have you ever heard the adage that you cannot have infinite economic growth in a finite planet? Or that economic growth is all well and good, but it is time New Zealand focussed our attention on other things? Read more
Why should policy focus on economic growth? The Case for Economic Growth provides the New Zealand Initiative’s answer. Read more