The current economic expansion is one of the more enduring in New Zealand's post-war period. But is this a change from past behaviour? We examine New Zealand's post-war business cycles for the sample period 1946q1 to 2005q4, using a newly developed 60-year quarterly time series for real GDP. The...

Arguments for and against abandoning independent national currencies and monetary policies have varied considerably over time and by country. For New Zealand, it can be argued that a key driving force behind recent debates has been the conduct of monetary policy and the need for improved overall...

An important requirement, prior to countries’ adopting a common currency or maintaining an independent monetary policy, is establishing the extent to which they share a common economic cycle and how susceptible they are to region-specific shocks. For example, Kouparitsas (2001) has examined...