You are here > Home / Publications / Motu Notes
Motu Notes
Motu Notes are designed to appeal to a general or policy audience, and are less technical than our working papers.
Motu Note #9: Why Do New Zealanders Care About Agricultural Emissions?
The question of how to effectively address agricultural greenhouse gas emissions is of critical importance for New Zealand and the world. Ensuring that our responses are effective requires us to first consider what we aim to achieve: why do we care about agricultural emissions? This paper...
McDonald, Hugh, and Suzi Kerr. 2011. "Why do New Zealanders Care About Agricultural Emissions?" Motu Note #9, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, Wellington.
Download documentMotu Note #8: PAYGO v SAYGO: Prefunding Government-Provided Pensions
In 2001, the New Zealand Superannuation Fund was created to partially prefund the future cost of New Zealand’s pay-as-you-go superannuation scheme. In 2009, in response to worsening government finances, additional contributions to the Fund ceased. This note provides a brief overview of the...
Coleman, Andrew. 2011. "PAYGO v SAYGO: Prefunding Government-Provided Pensions," Motu Note #8, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, Wellington.
Download documentMotu Note #7: Behavioural Economics: Implications for the Savings Literature
In the last two decades, economics rediscovered its psychological roots. It now imports insights about the way people act from psychology at an enormous rate. The economics based on these insights, which is known as behavioral economics, is taught in most economics programs. This note...
Coleman, Andrew. 2011. "Behavioural Economics: Implications for the Savings Literature," Motu Note #7, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, Wellington.
Download documentMotu Note #6: Mandatory Retirement Income Schemes, Saving Incentives, and KiwiSaver
All OECD countries have schemes that help people manage their retirement. Some of these schemes are mandatory, and are implemented through the tax system; others are voluntary but receive substantial subsidies. There is considerable variety across countries. While New Zealand has both...
Coleman, Andrew. 2011. "Mandatory Retirement Income Schemes, Saving Incentives, and KiwiSaver," Motu Note #6, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, Wellington.
Download documentMotu Note #5: Strategic Transport Choices
Why does transport deserve its own conference, its own government department and delivery agencies, its own trade journals, academic journals and books? The reason is not because transport is valued particularly in its own right. Instead, transport is a critical means to an end; in fact, to...
Grimes, Arthur. January 2011. "Strategic Transport Choices," Motu Note #5, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, Wellington
Download documentPage 1 of 1 pages