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Promoting well-informed and reasoned debate on public policy issues that matter to New Zealanders. 
Individual and group outcomes

Involuntary job loss: Welfare effects, earnings impacts, and policy options

Authors: Dave Maré | Dean Hyslop | Isabelle Sin | Shakked Noy

Working Paper

Workers who lose their jobs involuntarily have lower mental health and economic security in the short term — and lower earnings and physical health in the long term.

Firm productivity and performance

Of interest? Estimating the average interest rate on debt across firms and over time

Author: Richard Fabling

Working Paper

Our research shows firms that self-report being finance constrained face higher average interest rates than unconstrained firms. These differences in interest costs are, at least in part, due to constrained firms undertaking higher risk activities…

Updates

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2021-05-03

Motu Research study investigates impact of government heating programme on household wellbeing

EECA (the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority) has commissioned Motu Research to investigate the impact of heat pumps in homes with…

2021-04-12

Research shows NZ minimum wage policies not as effective (or damaging) as some claim

Research shows NZ minimum wage policies not as effective (or damaging) as some claim

2021-03-30

New proposal to boost voluntary climate action in Aotearoa New Zealand

Researchers at Motu Economic and Public Policy Research have released a policy proposal for boosting voluntary climate action by New…

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Motu Research Round Table

April 1, 2021

Motu Research briefing: Boosting voluntary climate action in Aotearoa New Zealand. Part 1

In this webinar, Motu Policy Fellow Catherine Leining introduced an innovative policy proposal for boosting voluntary carbon action and enabling organisations to make credible, transparent and marketable claims.

Recent events

June 3, 2021

Public Policy Seminar - Minimum wages in New Zealand: Sharp tool or blunt instrument?

New Zealand has seen dramatic changes in minimum wage policies since 2000 with the adult Statutory Minimum Wage in New Zealand rising substantially (75% in real terms). In this seminar we discuss the motivations for minimum wages, the changes over time, and how they have affected workers outcomes.
Surprisingly, it is hard to find a clear statement of what minimum wage policies aim to achieve.
Is a minimum wage policy as effective as claimed by its supporters, or as damaging as claimed by its critics?

October 14, 2020

Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire

A prominent economist and influential professor (The John and Natty McArthur University professor at Harvard), Rebecca is one of the world’s most articulate, insightful and persuasive scholars focused on driving large-scale change.

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September 14, 2020

Global Productivity: Trends, Drivers and Policies

Alistair Dieppe from the World Bank presentation on his recent paper which presents the first comprehensive analysis of the evolution and drivers of productivity growth, examines the impact of COVID-19 on productivity, and presents a wide-range of policies needed to rekindle productivity growth.

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Individual and group outcomes

Involuntary job loss: Welfare effects, earnings impacts, and policy options

Authors: Dave Maré | Dean Hyslop | Isabelle Sin | Shakked Noy

Working Paper

Workers who lose their jobs involuntarily have lower mental health and economic security in the short term — and lower earnings and physical health in the long term.
Firm productivity and performance

Of interest? Estimating the average interest rate on debt across firms and over time

Author: Richard Fabling

Working Paper

Our research shows firms that self-report being finance constrained face higher average interest rates than unconstrained firms. These differences in interest costs are, at least in part, due to constrained firms undertaking higher risk activities…
Housing

Warmer Kiwis Study

Authors: Arthur Grimes | Caroline Fyfe | Phoebe Taptiklis

Other

The Warmer Kiwis Study is collecting data over winter 2021 in homes of Kiwis who have a heat pump installed through the EECA Warmer Kiwi Homes programme.
Firm performance and labour dynamics

Minimum Wages in New Zealand: Policy and practice in the 21st century

Authors: Dave Maré | Dean Hyslop

Working Paper

This paper reviews the changes and impacts of the Statutory Minimum Wage in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past 20 years. The research finds minimum wage policies are not as effective as claimed by its…
Climate change mitigation

Permanent forest investment in a climate of uncertainty

Authors: Arthur Grimes | Sandra Cortés-Acosta

Working Paper

Forestry investment involves long time horizons. Planting decisions must be made amidst a range of uncertainties.
Climate change mitigation

Voluntary climate mitigation in Aotearoa New Zealand

Publication

This paper proposes an innovative two-track system aimed at scaling up voluntary climate action to help Aotearoa New Zealand meet its Paris Agreement targets – or mitigate beyond the targets.
Firm performance and labour dynamics

Covid-19 wage subsidy support and effects

Authors: Dave Maré | Dean Hyslop

Working Paper

This note provides a brief preliminary analysis of the short run impact of COVID-19 and the government’s Covid Wage Subsidy (CWS) response on labour market flows. We focus on two issues. First, to examine the…
Firm productivity and performance

Living on the edge: An anatomy of New Zealand’s most productive firms

Author: Richard Fabling

Working Paper

We investigate the characteristics and performance of New Zealand’s frontier firms from 2005 to 2018, using the rich microdata in the Longitudinal Business Database (LBD). This paper draws on the labour and productivity datasets available…
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