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In the Prime Minister’s recent State of the Nation speech that marked the starting line of this year’s election race, John Key’s major announcement was a $360m package, over four years, to build four new teacher roles. A policy that has seen widespread support across the education sector and among the public, it would see the promotion of 6,000 teachers in a workforce of 50,000. Read more

Consider this. New Zealand has sound institutional arrangements and according to the OECD, best practice policy settings. Read more

When 2,300 business leaders and government officials met for the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong this week, they were asked to vote on what they saw as the greatest threat to the world economy. Opinions were divided between troubles in emerging markets (52 per cent) and the withdrawal of monetary stimulus by the US Federal Reserve (32 per cent). Read more

Healthy competition is a key driver of efficiency gains. It forces businesses to focus on meeting customer needs better than anyone else. Read more

This year, HSBC asked over 7,000 ex pats in 37 countries how they felt about the attractiveness of their host countries from a financial, quality of life and child-raising perspective. The results – many of which may seem surprising – were released early this month. Read more

It was disappointing to see the New Zealand Wind Energy Association fire a broadside at the government this week, claiming pro-fossil fuel policy settings are leaving our economy behind in a world increasingly dominated by renewables. The opinion piece suggested we need to look to countries like Germany, which is on track to generate 30 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Read more

Oscar Wilde once suggested that “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life”, but had he wanted to describe the business of art he would have probably turned to the science of economics. At face value, it would seem art and economics have very little in common, but upon second glance, the apparently fickle nature of the art market is well explained by economic rationale. Read more