Shane Jones’ $3 billion Provincial Growth Fund has shone a light on regional economic development. But there are still a lot of misconceptions about what regional economic development is and what projects hope to achieve.
Too often economic development practitioners have the places they focus on dictated by political geography rather than the economic geography of those they are trying to help. Before beginning any economic development strategy, or even project for that matter, you need to get your geographical perspective right.
I am proud to have supported this documentary produced by Storyworks, with funding from NZ on Air. The documentary looks at the human side of Queenstown's severely unaffordable housing.
Social issues stemming from deteriorating housing affordability and a lack of new homes have been key topics of debate over recent years. Census 2018 helps show where in New Zealand household occupancy rates have deteriorated the most since 2013.
Business confidence has fallen to its lowest level in a decade. The irony is that the Reserve Bank’s August OCR cut, which was much bigger than market expectations, has spooked businesses rather than boosted them as had been intended.
Jetstar’s withdrawal from the regional market is a blow not just for consumers, but also economic and social development in the provinces.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) recently warned that workers across many countries may outlive their savings by a decade or more. Analysing evidence in New Zealand shows we are in a similar boat.
Questions regarding the future of work have recently focused my attention on understanding the sources of job creation […]
I was recently asked to provide comment on a fantastic article by Jo McKenzie-McLean looking at social issues stemming from Queenstown’s housing situation. My comments highlighted evidence of Queenstown’s burgeoning housing problem leading to a commuter belt forming.
I decided to test whether new or existing businesses are the engine for jobs growth in regional New Zealand. From an economic development perspective, these insights can help inform the extent to which resources should be focused on business attraction or building up resilience of existing enterprises.
The Reserve Bank’s target interest rate, the Official Cash Rate (OCR) has been slashed to a record low of 1.00%. Against a backdrop of a burgeoning international trade war, Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr is worried about being left behind in an international race-to-the-bottom to devalue currencies and support exporters.
Statistics NZ realeased its hotly anticipated Indicators Aotearoa dashboard. The dashboard was supposed to provide more than one hundred indicators of wellbeing, but instead we have been delivered a wireframe - filled with placeholders and patchy actual data.