Using comprehensive, shipment-level merchandise trade data, we examine the extent to which New Zealand exporters maintain stable New Zealand dollar prices by passing on exchange rate changes to foreign customers. We find that the extent to which firms absorb exchange rate fluctuations in the...

We combine firm-level innovation data with area-level Census data to examine the relationship between local workforce characteristics, especially the presence of immigrants and local skills, and the likelihood of innovation by firms. We examine a range of innovation outcomes, and test the...

In this paper we estimate the impact of local authority infrastructure spending in New Zealand using spatial econometric modelling, with the infrastructure spending itself endogenously determined. Utilizing data from the New Zealand Census and Local Authorities Finance data (1991-2008),...

House price trends in each of New Zealand and Australia are frequently discussed as national level developments. Sub-national developments are also important, especially where regions display idiosyncratic trends driven either by demand factors (differential income patterns) or by supply factors...

These four lectures on central banking topics were presented in London between September and December 2013. The lectures were delivered as part of Arthur Grimes' NZ-UK Link Foundation Visiting Professorship, based at the University of London's School of Advanced Study. They followed his stepping...

The New Zealand Regional Housing Model (NZRHM) includes estimated equations for four key housing market variables: house prices, housing supply (new dwelling consents), residential vacant land (lot) prices, and average rents. Long run (cointegration) relationships and short run (error...

In this paper we link unique data on local social infrastructure expenditure with micro-level individual survey data of self-reported social capital measures of trust and participation in community activities. We use both probit and tobit models to estimate the impact of social infrastructure...

Land taxes are known to be amongst the most efficient forms of taxation since land is an immobile factor; property (capital value) taxes are less efficient owing to the tax on improvements. However there is little international (or New Zealand) evidence regarding the distributional impacts of...