I’ve seen two blog postings in as many days on whats wrong with the New Zealand economy … are the hatchets out for the currency?

From FT Alphaville: For a developed country with seemingly supportive policies on tax, regulation and education, New Zealand’s workers are surprisingly unproductive, and they don’t seem to be improving very quickly either.

It makes 3 key points:

1. New Zealand is a much poorer country than it should be.

2. New Zealand’s productivity doesn’t lag its peers for the reasons you might expect

3. Two things do seem to matter: weak “knowledge-based capital” and poor “international connections.”

  • On the R&D data available, though, New Zealand doesn’t come out well (neither, for that matter, does the UK).
  • NZ R and D 20 April 2014
    New Zealand doesn’t rank highly on the quality of management and training either
  • New Zealand’s poor “international connections” are easy to grasp: It’s a remote place and it’s expensive to get to

The Financial Times is gated, but some articles can be read via free registration. Registering is a good idea, not least to read the consistently good and though-provoking pieces from FTAlphaville.

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Discussing the same report, here is a blog post at Marginal Revolution: Why isn’t New Zealand richer and more productive?

  • Might we be reading a very different piece if the Chinese had a stronger taste for milk?
  • Overall, if there is any nation which should be aiming to double or triple its population, it is New Zealand.