New Zealand's population is ageing. Public spending on public pensions (NZ Superannuation) and health are particularly sensitive to this trend and are expected to increase accordingly. Current and future government policies aimed at addressing this challenge will not only influence macroeconomic...

This report estimates the "social rate of time preference" (SRTP) for New Zealand public policy appraisal using a Ramsey equation. It uses the Weitzman (1998) method to derive a declining discount rate schedule of 2% (real) for years 1-30, 1.5% for years 31-100, and 1% for years 101 on. The...

The purpose of the paper is to help inform priorities for improving human capital. Governments, communities, and individuals invest a lot of resources in human capital. These investments include those in education, immigration systems, health, active labour market policies, and tax incentives....

I quantify the implications of projected natural population ageing for the value of the New Zealand aggregate human capital stock, using the Jorgenson/Fraumeni framework and Mincer equations. Using the framework, I compare quantitatively the impact of natural population ageing with that of other...

This paper presents an efficient solution method for solving stochastic overlapping generations (S-OLG) models. We use the Chebyshev parameterized expectation algorithm (C-PEA) developed by Christiano and Fisher (2000) to solve the life cycle block of S-OLGs. The method is well suited for this...

This paper considers the role of fiscal policy in New Zealand's macroeconomic stabilisation. New Zealand's macroeconomic framework is characterised by an institutional arrangement whereby monetary policy has the primary responsibility for macroeconomic stabilisation. In contrast, fiscal policy...

Fiscal multipliers provide a way of quantifying the GDP gain for a given (discretionary) fiscal policy intervention. I compute government consumption multipliers for New Zealand, in normal times and when monetary policy is constrained at the effective lower bound, using an estimated...

Automatic stabilisers are fiscal policy's first line of defence in the face of adverse economic shocks. Automatic stabilisers capture fiscal policy's automatic countercyclical response to the state of the business cycle, and are determined by factors like the progressivity of the tax system, the...

This paper discusses alternative methods to estimate the distribution of wealth in New Zealand. It develops a taxable income capitalisation method for estimating the distribution of wealth in New Zealand that is based on the approach of Saez and Zucman (2016; 2022) and adapted for New Zealand data...

Linked employer-employee data from New Zealand is used to study the relationship between a firm's productivity growth and its exposure to outside knowledge through the hiring of new workers with previous work experience. The estimated relationship between productivity growth and hiring is...