Household saving can be measured as either the difference between the flows of current income and expenditure, or through households’ balance sheets as changes in the stocks of accumulated net wealth. This paper examines household saving in New Zealand and other OECD countries, with particular...

Biological diversity, a term that encapsulates all of life - the diversity of plants and animals and the places they live, has changed the way we think about nature conservation. The conservation of biodiversity demands that we understand the role of natural systems and ecological processes in...

The main aims of the report are to: (1) gain a better understanding of key economic forces shaping choices available to schools; (2) build up our practical knowledge of how other organisations deal with the kinds of issues facing schools; and (3) bridge the gap between the view that economics...

This paper provides a review of conceptual and methodological issues in measuring productivity. Attention is given to the concept of productivity and the relationship between productivity and technological change. Different approaches to measuring productivity are surveyed and the results from a...

This paper uses the open economy structural VAR model developed in Buckle, Kim, Kirkham, McLellan and Sharma (2002) to evaluate the impact of monetary policy on New Zealand business cycles and inflation variability and the output/ inflation variance trade-off. The model includes a forward-...

How well have New Zealand households fared over a decade of extensive economic and social changes? This study compares household incomes in 1997/98 with household incomes in 1987/88, using the concept of "final income". Final income is a measure of the income accruing to households after...

This paper looks at the use of automatic fiscal stabilisers, particularly in relation to New Zealand’s experience over the past business cycle. Allowing the automatic stabilisers to operate in response to cyclical fluctuations in output is likely to yield efficiency gains in a country with a...

Globalisation, being the trend towards increasing global economic integration, is one of the largest forces, if not the largest force, affecting world economies at present. The current period of global economic integration is unprecedented and the pace and extent of globalisation will continue...

This paper discusses the latest thinking in the relationships between the economics of trade, geography and industrial clusters. The aim of the paper is to explain the relevance of these various arguments for the economy of New Zealand and to suggest a possible public policy role for overcoming...

This paper forms part of the Treasury’s ongoing work programme investigating New Zealand’s economic performance. It represents one approach to understanding New Zealand’s economic performance, that of reviewing theoretical and empirical literature on economic growth. Other research...