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The pandemic-induced recession creates a strong case for the Government to support struggling workers with targeted assistance, rather than a Universal Basic Income (UBI), according to the new policy paper Stay on Target by The New Zealand Initiative. As the Government searches for fresh and innovative ideas to prepare for the worst economic effects of shutting down the country’s commerce over four weeks, it has tentatively proposed the introduction of a universal basic income scheme. Read more

Unless effective treatment for the novel coronavirus Covid-19 emerges quickly, the world faces not only misery but economic depression. New Zealand will be immune to neither. Read more

Asking the public for submissions on pending legislation while the country is in pandemic lockdown risks making a farce of democracy and unnecessarily distracting the Government, according to a new policy paper by the New Zealand Initiative. The business of government must go on, said the Initiative’s chief economist Dr Eric Crampton, but politicians can afford to put less urgent matters aside for the time being. Read more

The Covid-19 outbreak is quickly developing into an economic crisis. Maintaining employment and the ability of firms to recover quickly when the crisis abates is critically important given that labour markets in several European countries are yet to fully recover from the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008. Read more

This research note is the third in a series of reports discussing the Initiative’s school performance tool and school evaluation in New Zealand. We present three case studies showing how three secondary schools performed before and after our tool separated the contribution of family background from the contribution of each school. Read more

Read our submission, written by Roger Partridge, to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), on Better protections for contractors: Discussion document for public feedback. In this submission we draw upon the research and recommendations from our July 2019 report, Work in Progress: Why Fair Pay Agreements would be bad for labour. Read more

As part of The New Zealand Initiative's transport research series, our second report, Pricing Out Congestion, focuses on the international experiences around congestion pricing, i.e. the use of road charges encouraging motorists to avoid traveling at peak times in busy routes. Read more

This submission is in response to the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment's (MBIE) Discussion Paper, Designing a Fair Pay Agreements System. In making this submission, the authors have drawn on the research and recommendations in our July 2019 report, Work in Progress: Why Fair Pay Agreements would be bad for labour, and say despite the overwhelming evidence against FPAs, if the government nevertheless introduces a framework permitting FPAs, and if the FPAs are to have any legitimacy, they must: be introduced incrementally, targeting only industries where there is evidence of labour markets failing workers and employers. Read more

For most of history, only the wealthiest in society had the time and resources to pursue disciplinary knowledge. For everyone else, knowledge beyond daily experience was an unaffordable luxury. Read more

New Zealand could be a leader in global emissions reduction. We could lower global emissions by far more than we contribute. Read more