A staff working paper on ‘Workforce Participation Rates: How Does Australia Compare?’ (by Joanna Abhayaratna and Ralph Lattimore) was released January 2007. With the population ageing and the associated shift in the age structure of the population towards older groups with lower workforce...

As we emerge from a deep and long recession, the debate must shift again to how New Zealand can lift its productivity growth rate. New Zealand has already done much work in getting the economic environment right for business growth. The reforms of the 1980s and early 1990s removed many of the...