We analyse the determinants of national R&D expenditure and patenting activity. In contrast to most related studies, we account for factors that impact on small, distant countries. These factors include country size, firm size, distance from major economic centres, and industrial structure. We...

Many analyses of firm performance are based upon self-reported measures. However, not only are these likely to be more subject to general reporting error than alternative official sources, but also measures of relative performance may be subject to the biases observed in the psychology...

We use data derived from the Longitudinal Business Database (LBD) to analyse the currency denomination and hedging behaviour of New Zealand merchandise exporters. For instance: In which currencies are New Zealand merchandise exports by country of destination denominated? Do different types of...

In this paper we examine patterns of merchandise exporting at both the firm level (1996-2005) and the product level (1988-2005). The presentation is descriptive, and is intended to frame future analysis of the determinants and impact of observed trading behaviour. There are two main points of...

We examine the impact of human resource practices on firm performance. The analysis uses data from an economy-wide survey to determine whether firms that adopt certain individual HR practices, or that adopt a suite of practices, perform better than their rivals. We find that adoption of a suite...

In 2006, Statistics New Zealand produced aggregate measures of product, process, organisational & marketing innovation (following the guidelines of the recently-revised Oslo manual). Uniquely, this innovation data has been collected in conjunction with a broader set of qualitative measures of...

This paper investigates the microeconomic dynamics of the New Zealand economy using a powerful new SNZ-held dataset. For the first time, tax data covering operating performance and position (IR10), company income declarations (IR4) and sales & purchases (GST) have been combined with firm-level...

How is New Zealand best able to maximise the potential of its enterprise population? The simple answer is that it has to ensure that the „rules of the game‟ (incentives and signals) are as good as they can be. Nonetheless, there still may be instances of market failure, suggesting grounds...

A firm’s business strategy does not exist in a vacuum; it requires employees to implement it. However, firms often say that they have difficulties hiring certain types of employees. Through interviews with firms and analysis of the 2008 New Zealand Business Operations Survey, this research...

This paper examines the determinants of firms’ skill shortages, using a specially-designed survey, the Business Strategy and Skills (BSS) module of the Business Operations Survey. We combine the BSS module with additional data on firms in the Statistics New Zealand’s prototype Longitudinal...