The Government is not considering lowering the speed limits on most major roads, despite new evidence showing around 87 percent of speed limits are too high for the conditions. But is it that simple: reducing the road toll by lowering the speed limits? Read more
Wellington (28 May 2019): As teachers prepare to leave the classroom on strike, a new policy point released by The New Zealand Initiative proposes a potential solution to the seemingly impossible impasse. "Minister Hipkins is in a thoroughly unenviable position," said Dr Eric Crampton, the Initiative’s Chief Economist and author of Biting education bullets. Read more
Public policy think tank The New Zealand Initiative welcomes the changes to NCEA that have been announced today by Education Minister Chris Hipkins. It is encouraging that the Minister’s NCEA Change Package mirrors so many of the recommendations in our 2018 report, Spoiled by Choice: How NCEA hampers education, and what it needs to succeed. Read more
The New Zealand Initiative today released its latest report, Refreshing Freshwater: Valuing the priceless. We believe it provides the best way of achieving the goals set in Minister Parker's Essential Freshwater programme. Read more
Eric Frykberg discusses our new report Refreshing Water in the Rural News update on Radio New Zealand. Author Eric Crampton explains why a cap-and-trade system (similar to the Emissions Trading Scheme) would give New Zealand a real chance to substantially improve the sustainability of our rivers and aquifers. Read more
Dr Eric Crampton speaks to Ngati Porou radio about his report, Refreshing Water, saying we believe our research provides a tool that will help Minister Parker, and the Government, achieve their goals of improving freshwater in New Zealand as outlined in the Essential Freshwater programme.
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Chief Economist Eric Crampton shares his thoughts on the cannabis referendum, and legalisation, with Mike Yardley on Newstalk ZB.
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Our International guest speaker Professor Barbara Oakley is a Professor of Engineering at Oakland University in Michigan. Over the past years, she has made a name for herself in promoting new and better ways of learning based on findings from neuroscience. Read more
The Interim Climate Change Committee (ICCC) will present its report to Government on transitioning New Zealand to 100% renewable electricity by 2035 this month. Research Fellow Matt Burgess is the author of our recent research report Switched On! Read more
Eric Crampton shares on Radio New Zealand his thoughts on the government's recent decision not to pursue a capital gains tax. Read more
Wellington (5 April 2019): A comprehensive and year-long econometric analysis of data for 400,000 students undertaken by The New Zealand Initiative reveals there are no significant differences in school performance between schools of different deciles. Adjusted for the different student populations they serve, the vast majority of New Zealand’s secondary schools create the education outcomes we would expect from them. Read more
Dr Oliver Hartwich discusses how our comprehensive, year-long econometric analysis buries the old myth that school quality is linked to school decile. Our findings are published in our latest Research Note, Tomorrow's Schools: Data and Evidence. Read more
Dr Eric Crampton discusses how our comprehensive, year-long econometric analysis buries the old myth that school quality is linked to school decile. Our findings are published in our latest Research Note, Tomorrow's Schools: Data and Evidence, written by Joel Hernandez. Read more
Our latest research, Tomorrow's Schools: Data and Evidence, carried out over a year, looked at data of 400,000 students and revealed there are no significant differences in school performance between schools of different deciles. Dr Oliver Hartwich, the Initiative's Executive Director discussed our research on Radio New Zealand. Read more
Dr Oliver Hartwich speaks to Guyon Espiner about our latest research, Tomorrow's Schools: Data and Evidence. This report comes at the end of a comprehensive, year-long data analysis of 400,000 students and shows that once family background is separated out, most schools have about the same impact on their students' learning - no matter their decile. Read more