New Zealand has a successful economy. International rankings regularly put us near the top for competitiveness, economic freedom, and ease of doing business.
At the same time, New Zealand’s per capita incomes trail those of other developed countries. Our productivity growth is anaemic. Our ability to attract high-quality international investment is limited and constrained.
New Zealand cannot rest on the laurels of past reforms. We must continue to improve our economic policy settings.
The New Zealand Initiative’s research includes analysis of regulatory and fiscal policy. We explore how incentives can promote economic development, and we investigate the social effects of economic policy.
Our research as also warned of the perils of loose monetary policy and detailed how central banks have increasingly become occupied with non-core business.
Our flagship publications include:
Taxpayers commonly work hard to earn the money that governments take in taxes. Knowing the effort sacrificed they naturally want governments to spend that money wisely and well. Read more
Last month, the Initiative published an essay listing six mistakes Graeme Wheeler and I argue the world’s major central banks widely made in responding to COVID. The New Zealand media interpreted this as an attack on the RBNZ. Read more
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
Read our submission, written by Dr Bryce Wilkinson to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. This submission responds to the Bank’s 1 June 2022 consultation paper, Supporting New Zealand’s economic stability. Read more
In making this submission, we have drawn on the research and recommendations in our report, Work in Progress: Why Fair Pay Agreements would be bad for labour (July 2019) (our Report). A copy of our Report is appended to this submission. Read more
If you want to know the effects of small changes to tax rates or tax thresholds on government revenue, Treasury provides a handy calculator. But the calculator breaks if you ask it to tell you the effects of inflation on tax revenues since April 2021, when the new 39% tax rate came in. Read more
The Platform's Sean Plunket interviewed Eric Crampton on New Zealand's tax system. He comments on the latest in a long line of dodgy Oxfam reports on inequality. Read more
Fair Pay Agreements have been passed into law amidst a fiery debate in parliament. Legislation for the agreements passed its final reading in Parliament last night - making it easier for workers to band together and negotiate better conditions and pay. Read more
No one can doubt the importance of military credibility in deterring hostile aggressors. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, even a pacifist post-World War II Germany and the previously neutral Nordic countries have learned that lesson. Read more
If years of arguing about supermarkets and supermarket policy have taught us anything, it’s that allowing another supermarket chain to enter the New Zealand market is in the national interest. So why won’t the government tell the Overseas Investment Office? Read more