We examine effects of urban passenger rail upgrades to Auckland's Western Line, including double tracking, station development, and related urban renewal projects. The results are used to assess anticipated net benefits of the developments. The rail-related upgrades are expected to be completed...

We examine trend economic developments in New Zealand and in each of Australia's six states and two territories (i.e. nine regions) in order to inform issues regarding economic policy harmonisation across Australasia. Our focus is on trend developments in GDP, population, GDP per capita and...

Water is critical for agriculture, yet surprisingly few studies internationally have analyzed the value placed on water in specific farming contexts. We do so using a rich longitudinal data set for the Mackenzie District (Canterbury, New Zealand) over nineteen years, enabling us to extract the...

We argue that the relationship between individual satisfaction with life (SWL) and SWL inequality is more complex than described by leading earlier research such as Goff, Helliwell, and Mayraz (Economic Inquiry, 2018). Using inequality indices appropriate for ordinal data, our analysis using the...

We utilise a quasi-natural experiment in local property tax reform arising from a compulsory amalgamation of several local councils in 2010 in Auckland, New Zealand, to form a unitary local authority. The reform involved changes in property taxes (known as 'Rates' in New Zealand) including a...

Empirical studies have consistently documented that while married men tend to lead more prosperous careers after moving than before, migration tends to be disruptive for the careers of married women. However, there has been little exploration of the interaction of non-economic outcomes of...

We analyse the relationships between subjective wellbeing (SWB), wages and internal migration. Our study addresses whether people make (revealed preference) location decisions based on SWB and/or wage prospects. We present both a theoretical intertemporal location choice model and empirical...

We estimate the impact of ultra-fast broadband on schools' academic performance using a difference-in-difference study of a new fibre broadband network. We show that fibre broadband increases primary schools' passing rates in standardised assessments by roughly one percentage point. Estimates...