Michael Reddell • Sep 02, 2017 •
As I noted yesterday afternoon, Steven Joyce had put out a press release on productivity. The press release was a mix of policy-based digs at the Labour Party (which weren’t of any particular interest to me) and some statistical claims, some of which seemed more or less reasonable and others not. The press release made these … Read More
Michael Reddell • Jun 30, 2016 •
Earlier this week the OECD released Skills Matter, a 160 page report on the results of a programme of surveys of adult skills in OECD (and a handful of other) countries. As usual with OECD reports, it is full of fascinating charts. Here is how they describe the programme: In the wake of the technological revolution that began in the … Read More
Eric Crampton • Dec 11, 2014 •
Whenever a small country gets mentioned specifically in an international report, that report there gets noticed. A new OECD working paper claims that income inequality hurts economic growth, and particularly hurt New Zealand growth. Note that this is ... Read More
John Pickering • Aug 26, 2014 •
It’s World Science Week. So, where are we in the science world? One measure showing our commitment to science is our expenditure on R&D. If we compare ourselves to the other OECD countries, we see that we are right at the bottom of the pile at 1.27% of GDP and have recently been overtaken by Hungary. … Continue reading → … Read More
Eric Crampton • Jun 05, 2013 •
The OECD having recommended that NZ adopt a capital gains tax, it's worth reviewing the case against them. First, here's the OECD: New Zealand belongs to a group of five OECD countries with particularly high pre-tax capital-income inequality (Figure ... Read More
Peter Griffin • Aug 18, 2011 •
Take a look at the graphs below, from the Mental Health Commission’s National Indicators 2011 report that uses 15 indicators to measure the mental health of the population. The top graph shows the results of a 2006 international Gallop poll that measured life satisfaction among participants in OECD countries. New Zealand came out looking pretty good – we … Read More
Peter Griffin • Apr 22, 2010 •
The Press carried some sobering statistics this morning about how we are leaders among comparable countries in the developed world when it comes to dying from heart attacks. As The Press health reporter Rebecca Todd explains: Sixty-three New Zealanders per 100,000 die of heart attacks every year, the report on developed nations shows. The next highest is … Read More