Motu farewells summer interns
Motu is this week saying goodbye to four senior students who have worked as interns over the summer months. Darian Woods, Alex Olssen, Ruth Pinkerton and Nick Tarrant return to their studies at the end of the month.
Darian used international trade data to explore whether New Zealand agricultural exporters could offset the costs of an emissions trading system by rearranging trading patterns. His data show that prices vary across countries and that this price variation has been consistent over time. His preliminary findings are consistent with a competitive international market and suggest that there is little room to increase prices. Darian is beginning honours study in Economics at the University of Canterbury.
Alex used Housing New Zealand Corporation and Census data to look at changes in state housing stock and sales since the 1990s, and explore how an area’s demographic characteristics affect the type and proportion of sales in that area. This work forms part of Motu’s Marsden-funded home ownership research project. Alex’s findings largely confirm official accounts of stock and sales over the period, and closely track associated policy changes. Alex now plans to conduct more detailed econometric analyses using this dataset, and will work part time for Motu as he begins honours study in Economics at Australian National University in Canberra.
Ruth used Census data to look at the nature and extend of residential sorting patterns in Auckland. She calculated a range of measures indicating the degree of clustering or segregation of different groups based on various socio-economic factors. Early results link residential sorting primarily to ethnicity (particularly Pacific Peoples) and income groups. Ruth plans to extend her investigations by combining variables and exploring immigrant groups, and will eventually submit this research as an honours project at Waikato University. Motu’s Dave Maré, an Adjunct Professor at Waikato, will co-supervise the project throughout the year.
Nick used Quotable Value New Zealand and Australian Bureau of Statistics data to explore correlations between the Australian and New Zealand housing markets. He found that New Zealand regional and Australian city house prices follow similar long run trends, with Granger causation tests showing effects in both directions between east coast Australian cities and Auckland, but not between Melbourne and Auckland. Nick will this year complete his studies in Economics at the University of Otago.
All four interns have completed some outstanding work over the last two months, and made genuine contributions to ongoing research projects at Motu. We look forward to following their progress.
Motu interns (l to r): Nick Tarrant, Darian Woods, Alex Olssen and Ruth Pinkerton
Posted 12-Feb-2010 by Emma Jellicoe
Motu has just published our latest research update, Motu Research Update 21. Motu Research Updates, published every three to six months, serve to keep people up-to-date with our recent research as well as updates on people and activities at Motu. It features articles written for a lay audience on a range of topics. This issue features articles on patterns of population location in Auckland, on the best way to design nutrient trading programmes that contribute to the reduction of nutrient leaching in Rotorua, and on recent Motu interns.
The Motu Research and Education Foundation is pleased to welcome a new patron, the 
