Motu Economic and Public Policy Research

Motu’s research addresses economic issues across New Zealand regions, in Australasia and internationally.

The publications listed on this page are drawn from a range of projects, including a Marsden-funded project titled Trans-Tasman Economies (see below), housing research in the Nelson, Tasman and Marlborough regions, and our Auckland agglomeration and housing supply research.

Click on the links to see sublists of New Zealand and international publications.

Trans-Tasman Economies

Motu was awarded a Marsden grant by the Royal Society of New Zealand to research the relationships between the New Zealand economy and those of the individual Australian states and territories.

Is New Zealand an Economic State of Australasia?

If trends and fluctuations across the Trans-Tasman economies exhibit similar characteristics, unified economic and financial institutions may be optimal. If they are dissimilar, separate institutions may be advisable. But how similar do developments have to be before it is efficient to adopt common institutions?

One yardstick is to compare New Zealand developments with those occurring in Australian states and territories, which already share common economic and financial institutions. If the New Zealand economy relates to the federal Australian economy in a manner similar to a typical Australian state economy, there is prima facie evidence to investigate closer economic and financial linkages. This study makes relevant comparisons using labour market, price and production data. It extends understanding of how the New Zealand economy relates to that of Australia as a whole and to its individual parts, providing valuable background for policy discussion.

To date, only limited work has been conducted comparing New Zealand with individual Australian states and territories regarding the nature of, and adjustment to, economic shocks. However, this is a more natural comparison than the national comparison, given the sizes of the entities - New Zealand has 20% of Australia’s population, 14% of its GDP and would be the fourth largest economy in Australasia. Australian states are subject to idiosyncratic shocks causing divergences in short and long run performance, but they nevertheless share common economic institutions (laws and regulations, stockmarket, currency, etc). Their experience compared with that of New Zealand, in each case relative to the Australian federal economy, could therefore inform future policy analysis in New Zealand.

Preliminary work conducted for the current study suggests that New Zealand is not one of the core Australian states (NSW and Victoria) but is similar in certain respects to the peripheral states (WA, SA, Queensland and Tasmania). The research task now is to take this preliminary analysis to a higher level of sophistication, so producing a body of knowledge that can reliably inform future policy analysis.

The work complements the regional work that Motu is conducting on the effect of economic shocks within New Zealand (e.g. within the FRST-funded programme, Understanding Adjustment and Inequality). The FRST programme considers regions within New Zealand while the Marsden-funded research considers New Zealand as one region within a wider economic zone. Together, the programmes should provide significant information on the processes of regional adjustment that are relevant to New Zealand.

Press Release: “An Anzac Dollar- would it work?”