I’m down in Wellington on Friday to give a few talks on urban planning and transport economics. If any of our Wellington-based readers are interested, I’d encourage you to come along and hear what we have to say. And please say hi afterwards!

The first talk is put on by the Transport Economics Knowledge Hub. I’ll be talking opposite my friend Chris Parker, a Treasury economist and former Auckland Council Chief Economist. Here’s the details:

The costs and benefits of urban development: Theory and evidence
Peter Nunns, Principal Economist, MRCagney Pty Ltd

&

Transport that serves urban and economic development
Chris Parker, Principal Advisor, The Treasury

Time and date: 10:00am to 11:30am, Friday 19 May 2017
Venue: Grant Thornton Building, Level 13, 215 Lambton Quay, Wellington
RSVP: knowledgehub@transport.govt.nz (by Monday 15 May 2017)

Abstracts
The costs and benefits of urban development: Theory and evidence
An important question for urban planning is where and when there is a case to limit development to manage the potential for market failure. However, there have been relatively few attempts to comprehensively compare the costs of restricting development with the various positive and negative externalities that are managed by doing so. This paper attempts to fill that gap. In doing so, it identifies how it would be possible to raise wellbeing by enabling more competitive, responsive urban development markets. To close, it asks whether alternative policy mechanisms are needed to efficiently enable urban development while appropriately addressing market failure.

Transport that serves urban and economic development
Chris will briefly cover his earlier research on how to generalise transport economic appraisals to capture their effects on land use through urban and economic development. He’ll first frame this up with Coase’s critique against the marginalist approach to economics. Finally he’ll explain how and why the transport sector should broaden its horizons and deeply engage with any reforms associated with the Productivity Commission’s Better Urban Planning inquiry.

Please note that seating is limited and will be allocated on a ‘first come first served’ basis. If you register to come and subsequently can’t make it please do let us know so we can offer your place to someone else.

The second talk is being put on by the IPENZ-Transportation Group. I’ll be speaking opposite another friend, Wayne Heerdegen, who’s an investment advisor at NZTA. Here’s the details:

IPENZ Transport Group Central Branch
Lunch Talks – Transport Economics

Who: Wayne Heerdegen, Principal Investment Advisor, NZ Transport Agency and Peter Nunns, Principal Economist, MRCagney Pty Ltd

When: 19 May 2017, arrive for 12:30 light lunch with 13:00 presentation

Where: IPENZ, Level 3, 50 Customhouse Quay

What:  Wayne will present the different methods currently used to forecast economic effects of transport investment.  He’ll explain why different methods are suitable for different applications and present some recent advancements in our understanding in this field. Peter will present about research recently conducted for NZTA about measuring the value of the movement of people and goods to inform the One Network Road Classification functional categories criteria.

RSVP: No RSVP required.

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3 comments

  1. Peter, would love to, but I’m busy on Friday. Hope it goes well. Are either of them going to be recorded?

  2. The IPENZ session was interesting – couldn’t get to the morning one, unfortunately.

    Are the presentations online anywhere?

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