This study estimates the impact of excess precipitation (or the absence of rainfall) on productivity of agricultural land parcels in New Zealand. This type of post-disaster damage assessments aims to allow for quantification of disaster damage when on-the-ground assessment of damage is too...

Natural hazard insurance is almost always provided through public-private partnerships. Given the dominant role of the public sector, it is surprising that equity issues have not faced more scrutiny with respect to the design of hazard insurance. We provide a detailed quantification of the...

We measure the longer-term effect of a major earthquake on the local economy, using night-time light intensity measured from space, and investigate whether insurance claim payments for damaged residential property affected the local recovery process. We focus on the destructive Canterbury...

We analyse the effects of macroprudential and monetary policies and their interactions using an estimated dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model tailored to New Zealand. We find that the main historical drivers of house prices are shocks specific to the housing sector. While our...

Compiling data from dozens of archival sources, I compile the most extensive series to date of the long-run imprisonment rate for five English-speaking nations: Australia, Canada, England and Wales, New Zealand and the United States. These series are constructed as a share of adults rather than...

Managed retreat programs aim to relocate households or remove homes and other infrastructure out of harm’s way. Managed retreats are most typically considered for coastal areas or floodprone zones. In New Zealand, as elsewhere, managed retreat initiatives generate a highly polemical and...

We quantify the impacts of droughts in New Zealand on the profitability of dairy, and sheep and beef farms. Using a comprehensive administrative database of all businesses in New Zealand, we investigate the impact of droughts on farm revenue, profits, return on capital, business equity, debt to...

The current financial crisis has sparked intense debate about how weak banks should be resolved. Despite international efforts to coordinate and converge on such policies, national policy advice and resolution practices differ. The resolution methods adopted in the Nordic banking crises in the...

How will the increased frequency of coastal inundation events induced by sea level rise impact residential insurance premiums, and when would insurance contracts be withdrawn? We model the contribution of localised sea level rise to the increased frequency of coastal inundation events. Examining...

Floods are among the most frequent and destructive natural hazards worldwide, yet their economic impacts remain poorly understood. This paper examines the effects of two cyclone-induced floods on firms’ economic performance in New Zealand. To identify flood damage, we propose a novel method...