Is Auckland costing New Zealand too much?
Auckland is currently growing more rapidly than the rest of New Zealand – as it has been doing for most of the last century. At the same time, other New Zealand regions are struggling with aging populations and drifting economies.
Understandably, some people look at these trends and conclude that Auckland’s a bit of a problem.…
49 Comments A debate over discount rates
Transport evaluation, and urban policy in general, invariably requires us to make trade-offs between the present and the future. When we invest in the built environment – roads, rails, buildings, etc – we are expending today’s resources on projects that will primarily benefit people in the future.…
The case against publicly owned golf courses, part 3
Over the last couple weeks, I’ve been taking a look at the economics of publicly owned golf courses. Unfortunately, I still haven’t managed to work in a reference to one of my favourite Big Lebowski quotes, so I’ll just have to drop it in here without preamble.…
Public transport and congestion in Wellington
Last week, I took a look at some new research from the Netherlands that estimated the benefits of public transport for car travel times based on data from 13 “natural experiments” – public transport strikes. The Dutch researchers found that PT provided significant congestion reduction benefits – around €95 million per annum, equal to 47% of PT fare subsidies.…
The case against publicly owned golf courses, part 2
Last week I started taking a look at publicly-owned golf courses. I argued that they are different from public parks in several important respects. While public parks are freely available to all Aucklanders, golf courses are only open to paying golfers.…
Briefing Papers 3: “Bubble trouble”
AUT’s Briefing Papers initiative has kindly allowed us to syndicate their recent series on housing. The third paper is by University of Auckland economist Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy:
As of May 2015, the average house price in the greater Auckland region was $828,502.…
How important is public transport for reducing congestion?
In July, I started taking a look at the economics of public transport fare policies. In the first part of the series, I took a look at how traffic congestion can be a rationale for public transport fare subsidies. (Parts 2 and 3 dealt with different issues.)…
The case against publicly-owned golf courses, part 1
Auckland’s 14 publicly owned golf courses have been in the public eye lately. Economist Shamubeel Eaqub argued that Auckland Council should develop housing on the golf courses:
In June, Eaqub said he wanted the golf courses sold and this was published in a book he had written.…
Wise words from the (Australian) Productivity Commission
One of the best things done recently by governments on both sides of the Tasman has been the establishment of Productivity Commissions tasked with investigating the economic efficiency (or lack thereof) of various policy areas. The NZ Productivity Commission, which only started up in 2011, has been diligently building an evidence base on issues as diverse as international freight, service sector productivity, and land use policies.…
Chart of the day: Government bond yields
I’m not a financial economist, but I occasionally take a look at the Reserve Bank’s fantastic collection of credit statistics. Their short-term and long-term data series often say a lot about where the New Zealand economy’s currently going and where it’s been.…
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