Tampilkan postingan dengan label New Zealand Initiative. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label New Zealand Initiative. Tampilkan semua postingan

Jumat, 23 Mei 2014

New Initiatives

Roger Partridge, Chairman of the New Zealand Initiative, writes on upcoming projects at NZI:
New initiatives for a better New Zealand
Roger Partridge | Chairman | roger.partridge@bellgully.com
Last week the New Zealand Initiative joined the chorus of approval for Finance Minister Bill English’s fifth budget. And rightly so. The budget confirmed that the threatened “decade of deficits” has been averted by careful fiscal management, to the envy of New Zealand’s OECD peers. Unlike his counterpart across the Tasman, Bill English could be forgiven for performing a pre-budget speech jig.

But while we may have become the envy of our Australian neighbours, New Zealand’s medium term growth prospects are hardly stellar. Over the five-year forecast period, New Zealand’s average real gross domestic product growth is forecast at only 2.8 per cent, well below the rates our economy achieved for much of the 1990s.

The forecast growth is even more miserly when compared with many of our neighbours in the Asia Pacific region. Singapore’s forecast for real GDP growth of nearly 3.5 per cent over the next five years makes New Zealand’s prospects look a little pedestrian.

There are many big issues for our policy-makers to tackle:
  • New Zealand’s international ranking in educational achievement has fallen. Up to 30 per cent of primary school students are not meeting national standards in literacy, with significantly lower rates for Maori and Pasifika students. 
  • Nearly 8 per cent of the population is dependent on some kind of welfare benefit, and that’s not including superannuation. 
  • In a global context, New Zealand could certainly do better. Our ranking is poor in the OECD’s FDI Regulatory Restrictiveness Index. 
  • Productivity is another issue, as New Zealanders work about 15 per cent longer than the OECD average to produce about 20 per cent less output per person. 
We believe new thinking is needed in these areas.

In our first two years we have developed solutions to assist our policy-makers tackle the housing affordability crisis, address the very real concerns many of our parents and schools have about teacher quality, and respond to the alarming decline in New Zealand’s international attractiveness as a destination for foreign investment. We have been pleased with the receptiveness of politicians on both sides of the House to our ideas.

As our organisation has developed the strength and depth of its research team, and with the appointment of Dr Eric Crampton as our new Head of Research, we have the confidence to tackle a broader range of issues. Yesterday the Board of the New Zealand Initiative approved an ambitious plan for our team to develop research-based solutions to many of these issues.

We will be looking at compact cities, demographic change and the housing market, examples of teaching excellence, New Zealand’s natural resource opportunities, the case for economic growth, New Zealand’s fiscal future, improving numeracy and maths teaching methods, examining the scope for social bonds in New Zealand, and the effects of household saving policies. And these are just some of the projects we will aim to tackle over the coming years.

We are confident we will come up with innovative thinking in all these areas. If our policy-makers listen, we will see our Kiwi economy really fly. Watch this space.
I'll be helping out with many of these projects when I come in at NZI, then, I expect, helping to shape new project proposals.
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Minggu, 18 Mei 2014

Wellington-bound

I am very pleased to announce that I'm moving to Wellington to serve as Head of Research for the New Zealand Initiative. I'll begin there in August, with precise timing depending on our sorting out moving from Christchurch.

I'm really looking forward to working with the team there. In addition to the great set of projects they have lined up, I'll have scope to help shape future research. Loyal readers at Offsetting may see some minor interruptions in service while we move house, but blogging will continue - this time as part of the job description.

I'll miss my friends in Christchurch and the Department here terribly. But some opportunities are too good to miss.

The New Zealand Initiative is the successor organisation to the New Zealand Business Roundtable, Roger Kerr's think-tank, and the New Zealand Institute, David Skilling's. It's going to be a lot of fun. And, I hope I'll there be able to do just a bit more to help keep New Zealand the best place in the world to live.

Here's the NZI press release.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
19 May 2014


MEDIA RELEASE

The New Zealand Initiative names Dr Eric Crampton as new Head of Research

Dr Crampton’s international academic experience will grow the Initiative’s reputation as New Zealand’s leading business think tank

Wellington (May 19) –  The New Zealand Initiative today announced that Dr Eric Crampton has been appointed as its new Head of Research. Dr Crampton, a senior lecturer at the University of Canterbury and author of the popular economics blog Offsetting Behaviour, will take up his new position in August. Dr Crampton will lead the Initiative’s research team to develop recommendations for New Zealand’s most pressing public policy questions.

The Initiative’s Executive Director Dr Oliver Hartwich said: “We are delighted to have secured Dr Crampton for this new role. His economic expertise, his international experience and his ability to effectively communicate complex ideas will help to grow The New Zealand Initiative’s output and influence.”

Dr Crampton is a Canadian-born economist, who obtained his Ph.D. at George Mason University (Fairfax, VA) under Professor Tyler Cowen. He was a visiting fellow at ZEI at Bonn University (Germany), and has been a lecturer and senior lecturer at Canterbury University since 2003. Dr Crampton’s work and publications have covered a wide range of public policy topics, including public health, competition law, and the analysis of political systems. His blog Offsetting Behaviour is among New Zealand’s top-20 blogs and recommended by the American Economics Association in their ‘Resources for Economists’ list. He also edits The Dismal Science for The Royal Society’s SciBlogs initiative.

Dr Crampton’s appointment underlines The New Zealand Initiative’s goal to be the country’s leading evidence-based public policy think tank.

Dr Hartwich said: “The New Zealand Initiative is all about developing robust and fresh ideas to make New Zealand a better country. Dr Crampton shares this vision and we look forward to his contributions to public policy debates.”

About the New Zealand Initiative

The New Zealand Initiative is an evidence-based think tank and research institute, which is supported by a membership organisation that counts some of the country’s leading visionaries, business leaders and political thinkers among its ranks.

Our members are committed to developing policies to make New Zealand a better country for all its citizens. We believe all New Zealanders deserve a world-class education system, affordable housing, a healthy environment, sound public finances and a stable currency.

The New Zealand Initiative pursues this goal by producing well-researched reports and hosting high level conferences and events. For more information visit www.nzinitiative.org.nz.

For more information contact:
Ben England
Communications Officer
The New Zealand Initiative
Ph +64 4 494 9109
ben.england@nzinitiative.org.nz
 

 
Update: Here's Nevil Gibson on the move.

And some of my favourite tweets:
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