Performance indices are used worldwide as indicators of activity in key sectors to assist analysts and decision-makers. An advantage of these indices is that, by pooling information from the series that make up the indices, idiosyncratic variation is smoothed out, and a stable and potentially...

Over the next year another 50,000 people will become unemployed. The number of unemployed will surpass that of the last recession of 1997-98. To address the unemployment challenge New Zealand needs to supplement existing job search assistance with investment in training and business capital to...

Over the next year another 50,000 people will become unemployed. The number of unemployed will surpass that of the last recession of 1997-98. To address the unemployment challenge New Zealand needs to supplement existing job search assistance with investment in training and business capital to...

How do private returns to tertiary education in New Zealand compare internationally? According to the latest OECD measures, the private rate of return for New Zealand is 8.9%, compared to an OECD average of 12.4%, placing New Zealand toward the bottom of the OECD ranking. The aim of this study...

I solve the optimal consumption and portfolio choice problem of a retiree who is endowed with both liquid assets and pre-annuitized wealth in Social Security. The retiree faces an investment menu including an equity index, a risk-free bond, a life insurance and a variable annuity. I find that...

Humans regret their choices when they miss out on a good opportunity, especially in individual investment. Regret is an emotion prone to appear in human decision-making in some stock trading operations, as in the repurchase effect—the phenomenon in which people prefer to repurchase stocks that...

How do private returns to tertiary education in New Zealand compare internationally? According to the latest OECD measures, the private rate of return for New Zealand is 8.9%, compared to an OECD average of 12.4%, placing New Zealand toward the bottom of the OECD ranking. The aim of this study...