Richard Fabling
Senior Fellow
Richard joined Motu as a Senior Fellow in October 2011, having previously held senior research positions at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and the Ministry of Economic Development. In those roles, he was instrumental in the development of New Zealand’s Business Operations Survey and Longitudinal Business Database (LBD). His collaboration with Statistics New Zealand is ongoing and is currently focussed on the integration of new datasets into the LBD.
Richard’s primary research interest is in describing and understanding the performance of firms, and the application of this understanding to issues of public policy. His current work focuses on the determinants of productivity growth, especially the role of intangible investments (eg, changing work practices, R&D); the performance of internationally engaged businesses; and the effect of the Global Financial Crisis on workers and firms.
Richard holds a doctorate from the University of Waikato in Applied Mathematics (Magnetohydrodynamics), where his thesis entailed modelling solar flares.
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Publications
Fabling, Richard and Arthur Grimes. 2003. "Insolvency and Economic Development: Regional Variation and Adjustment," Motu Working Paper 03-18.
Grimes, Arthur and Richard Fabling. 2005. "Insolvency and Economic Development," Journal of Economics and Business, 57:4, pp. 339-359.
- Crawford, Ron; Richard Fabling, Arthur Grimes and Nick Bonne. 2007. "National R & D and Patenting: Is New Zealand an Outlier?" New Zealand Economics Papers, 41:1, pp. 69-90.
Grimes, Arthur and Richard Fabling. 2007. "HR Practices and Firm Performance: What Matters and Who Does it?" MED Ooccasional Paper 07-02.
Fabling, Richard; Arthur Grimes and Philip Stevens. 2008. "A Comparison of Qualitative and Quantitative Firm Performance Measures," MED Occasional Paper 08-04, Ministry of Economic Development, Wellington, New Zealand.
Fabling, Richard and Arthur Grimes. 2008. "Do Exporters Cut the Hedge? Who Hedges and Why," Ministry of Economic Development Occasional Paper 08/02.
Grimes, Arthur and Richard Fabling. 2007. "Practice Makes Profit: Business Practices and Firm Success," Small Business Economics, 29:4, pp. 383-399.
Fabling, Richard. 2007. "The performance of New Zealand exporters: Some firm-level evidence," Motu Public Policy Seminar, December.
Fabling, Richard and Arthur Grimes. 2010. "Cutting the hedge: Exporters' dynamic currency hedging behaviour," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, 18, (3), pp. 241-53.
Fabling, Richard. 2010. "Keeping it Together: Tracking Firms in New Zealand's Longitudinal Business Database," Motu Working Paper 11-01.
Fabling, Richard, Arthur Grimes and Lynda Sanderson. 2011. "Any Port in a Storm? The Impact of New Port Infrastructure on New Zealand Exporter Behaviour," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Discussion Paper DP2011/01, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Wellington. Available online at http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/research/discusspapers/dp2011.html
Maré, David C.; Richard Fabling and Steven Stillman. 2011. "The Impact of Immigration and Local Workforce Characteristics on Innovation," Economic Impacts of Immigration Working Paper , New Zealand Department of Labour, Wellington. Available online at http://www.dol.govt.nz/publications/research/local-workforce-characteristics-innovation/
Maré, David C., Richard Fabling and Steven Stillman. 2011. "Immigration and Innovation," Motu Working Paper 11-05, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, Wellington.
Maré, David C., and Richard Fabling. "Productivity and Local Workforce Composition," Motu Working Paper 11-10, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, Wellington.
- Fabling, Richard, Arthur Grimes and Philip Stevens. 2012. "The Relatives are Fine: Use of Qualitative Firm Data in Economic Analysis," Applied Economics Letters, 19:7, pp. 614-8
- Fabling, Richard. 2011. "International Engagement and Firm Performance," Asymmetric Information: Newsletter of the New Zealand Association of Economists, Issue 42, December 2011, p. 10.