New Zealand Institute for the study of competition and regulation inc.

KiwiRail: strategic asset or strategic blunder?

Sir John templeton famously warned that the four most expensive words in the English language are 'this time it's different'.  As Dave Heatley explains, if only the government had heeded Templeton's warning, it might have foreseen the gloomy future for rail foretold in the sector's past.

Why has New Zealand's equity market lost ground?

New Zealand's capital markets are smaller than those in similarly sized OECD countries, and do not appear to have grown.  Why?  Laura Hubbard and Lewis Evans ask if the structure of the New Zealand economy provides an answer.

Why is corporation tax revenue so hard to forecast?

Are variations in corporation tax revenues an inherent property of the tax structure?  John Creedy and Norman Gemmell investigate the not-always-straightforward relationship between tax revenue and profits, and discuss how 'revenue elasticity' could be used to improve the accuracy of tax forecasts.

Pushing pills to consumers

Don Kenkel compares prescription-drug advertising in New Zealand and the US, and asks if the private profits of drug companies can be combined with public health gains.

Counting the costs of alcohol consumption

Alcohol abuse is a serious problem that requires serious analysis, but alcohol use also carries important consumer benefits.  Drawing upon recent work by Eric Crampton and Matt Burgess, Bronwyn Howell argues the case for a comprehensive New Zealand cost-benefit analysis of the effects of alcohol.

Is telecommunications separation the way to go?

Integration lessons from the electricity sector.

The government's 2007 requirement that Telecom separate into component companies stands at the vanguard of a growing international trend toward sector segregation.  But will it prove to be a successful move?  In other sectors (notably electricity) some integration appears to be better than forced separation plus contracting for achieving sufficient and sustainable investment.  Bronwyn Howell, Richard Meade and Seini O'Connor highlight some lessons that telecommunications can learn from electricity's experience.

Non-compensation it's not just

In our last issue Lewis Evans, Neil Quigley and Kevin Counsell reported on mechanisms for protecting private property rights in New Zealand, noting that they are weak by OECD standards and apply inconsistently across different forms of rights.  Dave Heatley explores some recent high-profile events that highlight the inconsistencies inherent in New Zealand's fragmented approach to property right protection and compensation when these rights are violated as a consequence of central- and local-government decisions.

Is looking behind the border the key to catching up?

How does the quality of a country's structural policies - the regulations and institutions that impact on businesses' access to markets and efficient market operation - affect economic growth?  Robert Buckle and Laura Hubbard report on a recent study.