Kieran Madden
About Kieran Madden
Research Manager
Kieran joined Maxim Institute as a researcher in 2012 after graduating with a Master of Public Policy from the Crawford School of Economics and Government at the Australian National University.
Prior to this he worked as a researcher for an Australian Senator, following several years as a Project Manager for Hewlett Packard.
Most Recent Activity
Reflections and Recommendations | Pathways into and out of poverty
By Kieran Madden
Reflections and Recommendations A clearer understanding of how poverty “works” helps to guide a better, more dynamic response for struggling…
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Poverty related factors for families now and in the future
By Kieran Madden
Poverty-related factors for families now – international evidence[1] As New Zealand-based evidence is limited, we turn to the UK to…
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Poverty across generations
By Kieran Madden
Mobility and persistences: Poverty across generations Poverty is an intergenerational, relational problem. While the prevailing philosophical perspective promotes the view…
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Current poverty | poverty within lifetimes
By Kieran Madden
Risk factors and trigger events What causes poverty for families today differs from what causes poverty across generations. Causes of…
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Causation and income dynamics of people in disadvantage
By Kieran Madden
CAUSATION The surveys above asked the question, “What causes poverty?” But before we, as researchers and policy makers, can answer…
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Uncovering pathways into and out of disadvantage in New Zealand
By Kieran Madden
INTRODUCTION Families in poverty face significant challenges and disadvantages that are likely to have scarring effects long into their children’s…
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Policy for the people, with the people
By Kieran Madden
While reading about a promising new policy initiative by a bright-eyed non-profit organisation, I did a double-take when I read…
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“Random” answers for poverty prove Nobel-worthy
By Kieran Madden
Far too often, debates on topics that really matter are mired in oversimplification at best, and stagnate in sloganeering at…
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The failure of audacious goals
By Kieran Madden
“Goals are for losers.” I wouldn’t put it quite as provocatively as cartoonist Scott Adams did in his book How…
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Avoiding the election budget “black holes”
By Kieran Madden
In April this year, astrophysicists did the seemingly impossible and took a photo of a black hole. The black hole…
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Recommendations | Defining and measuring what it means to be poor in New Zealand
By Kieran Madden
DEFINITION AND MEASUREMENT Defining Poverty: A definition of poverty cannot capture “everything in the world we don’t like,” as one…
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Defining and measuring what it means to be poor in New Zealand
By Kieran Madden
INTRODUCTION Who is poor? How did they get there, and how has poverty damaged their lives? The first paper in…
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Drawing the Line | Measuring Poverty
By Kieran Madden
Just as there is no one accepted definition of poverty, there is also no one measure of poverty. Measures of…
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The Art of Disagreeing Agreeably
By Kieran Madden
Illustrations by Anieszka Banks When engaging with someone you disagree with, own the fact that it could get awkward. New Zealanders…
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Don’t turn away
By Kieran Madden
“Our noses were almost touching…we were breathing the same air.” These are the words of Marcia Khoza, whose mother was…
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The “yeah, nah” government
By Kieran Madden
That gutting feeling of unfulfilled expectations is hard to shake, and the bigger the promise, the bigger the disappointment. The…
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Raising resilient children through healthy relationships
By Kieran Madden
When we hear of the overwhelming, and often heart-breaking challenges that some families face it can be easy to feel…
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This is our home
By Kieran Madden
Vibrant flowers gild the gates of the Christchurch mosques, each bouquet laid with trembling hands, representing a beautiful solidarity amidst…
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Now is the time to take our changing future seriously
By Kieran Madden
The Government is dead-set on improving “wellbeing” as the mark of their leadership, and “long-term intergenerational wellbeing” in particular. This…
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Vocational surgery required
By Kieran Madden
Our vocational educational system is on life support— haemorrhaging badly in desperate need of surgery. Four of New Zealand’s sixteen…
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