The COVID-19 pandemic had disproportionate impacts on women's employment, especially for mothers with school-age and younger children. However, the impacts likely varied depending on the type of policy response adopted by various governments. New Zealand presents a unique policy setting in which...

Do higher skills help mitigate the negative impact of economic crises? We study the effect of two major economic setbacks-the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2007-09 and the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020-on wage progression for New Zealanders with different skill levels. For our analysis, we link...

This paper empirically examines the impact of the 2001 New Zealand minimum wage reform on the employment of 16-17 and 18-19-year-olds using administrative data from Statistics New Zealand's Integrated Data Infrastructure. This reform increased the real minimum wage of 18-19-yearolds by 68%, and...

New Zealand introduced a substantial childcare subsidy just over a decade ago, providing 20 hours free early childhood education (ECE) to all three- and four-year-olds. We evaluate the impact of this policy shift on mothers' labour market participation and earnings. Using a...

Several studies have shown significant persistence in low pay, along with a greater probability of moving out of low pay and into higher pay in the future. Low-paid jobs are therefore often deemed stepping stones, rather than dead-ends. However, using point-in-time information past literature...