Economics
About Economics
From the price of milk to how easy it is to find a job, the way each of us live and many of the choices we get to make depend on how we answer the economic questions facing New Zealand. We approach these questions knowing that economics isn’t just financial, it’s about the wellbeing of every person.
Most Recent Activity
Sabotaging the lifts in New Zealand’s tower of wealth
By Julian Wood
If you haven’t seen the 2018 Side Eye Inequality Tower by Toby Morris and Max Rashbrooke, it’s well worth a…
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Irresponsible lenders on borrowed time
By Julian Wood
While borrowing money at an annualised interest rate of up to 693% wouldn’t appear at the top of anyone’s wish…
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Housing Panel – Live Q+A
THREE PERSPECTIVES ON HOW WE MOVE FORWARD A decent, affordable place to live is a basic need for every person,…
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Time to take a risk for the regions – Newsroom column
By Alex Penk
To lay out an explanation for the recommendations in our Taking the Right Risks policy paper on regional development, Alex Penk…
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Alex Penk talks with Mike Hosking – Regional development policy paper
Upon the release of our regional development paper, Taking the Right Risks, Alex Penk was interviewed by Mike Hosking on…
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Regional Development Policy Paper: Taking the Right Risks
By Julian Wood
Our previous work on regional development laid out the evidence that large parts of New Zealand are facing a 30 year wave…
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Planning to take the right risks for our regions
By Julian Wood
New Zealand’s Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has a problem. He has three billion dollars and three years to change…
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Alex Penk on The Project – Newshub
By Alex Penk
In response to the Government’s minimum wage rise, The Project featured an interview with Alex Penk as part of a…
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Back to the Trade Wars?
By Julian Wood
It seems the Trade Wars are back on. Battle-lines are being draw up like the musket wars of old, with…
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“No.8 wire” ethic is not enough
By Julian Wood
While New Zealanders are proud of the “number 8 wire” ethos that represents our ingenuity and resourcefulness, our actual productivity…
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Getting fit to compete in the global game
By Julian Wood
While political and economic “change” is on everyone’s lips, we need to be clear about our current situation, and what…
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Read our column on The Spinoff and RNZ
By Alex Penk
This week, Alex Penk and Julian Wood’s column Triumph or disaster? A guide to the minimum wage increase featured on The…
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$1B regional development fund needs coherent vision
By Alex Penk
Maxim Institute welcomes investment in New Zealand’s regions, but CEO Alex Penk cautions that we urgently need more detail on…
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Getting real about the cost of water
By Julian Wood
I spent 10 years in China working on a beef cattle farm, and a fair amount of that time was…
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Taxes, trust, and transparency
By Kieran Madden
“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?” This, apparently, was economist John Maynard Keynes’…
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Funding roads in the electric future
By Julian Wood
In a recent blog, I made the case for regional petrol taxes, which would allow district and town authorities to…
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Paying at the pump to revive our crumbling infrastructure
By Julian Wood
We hear a lot about Auckland’s infrastructure woes, but across the country there are regions desperately trying to fund their…
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Youth UBI fails to focus on real need
By Danielle van Dalen
Only a few years ago I would have been eligible for the $200 a week Gareth Morgan’s party just announced…
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Big questions for local councils
By Alex Penk
Do you expect your council to light your streets and fix the potholes? Do you think it should provide clean…
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Investing in people, regardless of return
By Julian Wood
Like the proverbial frog in the slowly heating pot, many of us are blissfully unaware of the change currently going…
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