Many analyses of firm performance are based upon self-reported measures. However, not only are these likely to be more subject to general reporting error than alternative official sources, but also measures of relative performance may be subject to the biases observed in the psychology...

We examine the impact of human resource practices on firm performance. The analysis uses data from an economy-wide survey to determine whether firms that adopt certain individual HR practices, or that adopt a suite of practices, perform better than their rivals. We find that adoption of a suite...

This paper investigates the microeconomic dynamics of the New Zealand economy using a powerful new SNZ-held dataset. For the first time, tax data covering operating performance and position (IR10), company income declarations (IR4) and sales & purchases (GST) have been combined with firm-level...

In this paper we examine patterns of merchandise exporting at both the firm level (1996-2005) and the product level (1988-2005). The presentation is descriptive, and is intended to frame future analysis of the determinants and impact of observed trading behaviour. There are two main points of...

We analyse the determinants of national R&D expenditure and patenting activity. In contrast to most related studies, we account for factors that impact on small, distant countries. These factors include country size, firm size, distance from major economic centres, and industrial structure. We...

Which business practices set successful firms apart from others? We address this question using data from an official survey of almost 3,000 New Zealand firms. Questions cover: leadership, planning practices, customer and supplier focus, employee practices, quality and process monitoring,...

In 2006, Statistics New Zealand produced aggregate measures of product, process, organisational & marketing innovation (following the guidelines of the recently-revised Oslo manual). Uniquely, this innovation data has been collected in conjunction with a broader set of qualitative measures of...

The Ministry of Economic Development ran a series of seminars about economic growth in 2004. One was an economic history of economic growth in New Zealand, three were on different and sometimes contradictory conceptual ways of thinking about economic growth – endogenous growth theory, Austrian...

Why do some countries and regions have higher capital intensity than others? This question is at the heart of economic development analysis since capital intensity, per capita incomes and welfare are closely linked. We develop a two sector general equilibrium model relevant to small open...

International evidence indicates that higher terms of trade levels and lower terms of trade volatility contribute to enhanced growth outcomes, especially for commodity-export and developing countries. New Zealand's terms of trade have been high and remarkably stable since the early 1990s...