The public is constantly told income inequality is rising and the government should do something. This report seeks to explain why inequality matters, even though it has barely changed. It shows how income inequality did rise in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but has since flattened out. Meanwhile consumer spending inequality has returned to...

Nearly four years ago, Prime Minister John Key announced a major reform of the welfare system. He defined the problem with the existing system in the following terms: The stand-out feature of New Zealand’s benefit system is how passive it is. For the most part it simply hands over benefits and leaves people to their...

Open for Business: Removing the barriers to foreign investment is the third report released by The New Zealand Initiative on foreign direct investment. This final report in The New Zealand Initiative’s series on global financial links has found that New Zealand has an overly restrictive regulatory structure on inward capital flows, particularly relating to land...

This report is the second of three that aims to promote public debate about New Zealand’s global links, including the contentious issues of foreign ownership and net external indebtedness. Key points: Openness to the rest of the world through trade and capital is key to the prosperity of nations. Merchandise world trade has grown much...