Reports & Media

This week we released a research report, A Matter of Balance: Regulating Safety. It looked into the costs and benefits of Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment's (MBIE) campaign to reduce workplace injuries from falls from heights of less than 3 metres in residential construction. Read more

Australia National University’s Dr George Barker suggested this week that New Zealand could do well by strengthening its copyright legislation. He warned against the fair dealing exceptions that have crept into the law and asked, “Why not have copyright law like property law – i.e. Read more

As readers of this column will be aware, I am not Angela Merkel’s greatest fan. Nor do I think that her strategy on Greece has been particularly successful. Read more

It’s always a bit tough reporting on the New Zealand Economics Association annual conference. Not because the papers are filled with opaque mathematical theory, or because speakers were less than lucid – neither of those are true, for the most part. Read more

The application of Trans-Tasman Resource (TTR) to go looking for heavy minerals off the West Coast captured few headlines when it was announced last month. It quickly sank below notice amid the tack and gybe of business journalism. Read more

No wonder Winston Churchill once won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He had a wonderful way of summing up political affairs, such as this famous quote: “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.” We can only wonder what Churchill would make of Europe’s Greek crisis. Read more

On 1 July, smoking in prisons was banned in the Australian state of Victoria, following New Zealand’s lead. But is stripping prisoners of their smokes a benefit to society? Read more

The Kapiti News reported on 17 June 2015 that lower water consumption following the advent of water metering "now means a pricing increase to recover the costs" of piped water supply. Considerable local scoffing ensued. Read more