IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sls/ipmsls/v34y20183.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can the Kiwi Fly? Achieving Productivity Lift-off in New Zealand

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Conway

Abstract

New Zealand's poor long-run productivity performance has puzzled domestic economists and international observers for decades. To provide answers, this article sketches out the broad reasons why lifting productivity has proven so difficult. Against the background of ongoing changes in technology and in the global trading environment, the article also puts forward a number of high-level policy suggestions aimed at countering the economic forces that have constrained productivity, including opening the economy to new opportunities for international connection, and encouraging capital deepening, greater competition and more effective innovation. Getting this right requires a deep understanding of New Zealand's productivity track record and potential in the 21st century global economy and presents a major challenge for the New Zealand public sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Conway, 2018. "Can the Kiwi Fly? Achieving Productivity Lift-off in New Zealand," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 34, pages 40-63, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:sls:ipmsls:v:34:y:2018:3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.csls.ca/ipm/34/Conway.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David C. Maré & Dean R. Hyslop & Richard Fabling, 2017. "Firm productivity growth and skill," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3), pages 302-326, September.
    2. Richard Harris & Trinh Le, 2019. "Absorptive capacity in New Zealand firms: Measurement and importance," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 46(2), pages 290-309.
    3. De Backer, Koen & Miroudot, Sébastien, 2014. "Mapping global value chains," Libros de la CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 37176, May.
    4. Marc J. Melitz & Giancarlo I. P. Ottaviano, 2021. "Market Size, Trade, and Productivity," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Firms and Workers in a Globalized World Larger Markets, Tougher Competition, chapter 4, pages 87-108, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Van Reenen, John & Bloom, Nicholas & Sadun, Raffaella, 2016. "Management as a Technology," CEPR Discussion Papers 11312, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Andrew Coleman & Özer Karagedikli, 2018. "Residential construction and population growth in New Zealand: 1996-2016," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Discussion Paper Series DP2018/02, Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
    7. Jamie Culling & Hayden Skilling, 2018. "How does New Zealand stack up? A comparison of labour supply across the OECD," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 81, pages 1-19, April.
    8. Paul Conway, 2011. "How to Move Product Market Regulation in New Zealand Back Towards the Frontier," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 880, OECD Publishing.
    9. Criscuolo, Chiara & Gal, Peter N. & Menon, Carlo, 2014. "The dynamics of employment growth: new evidence from 18 countries," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60286, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Paul Conway & Adrian Orr, 2000. "The process of economic growth in New Zealand," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, vol. 63, March.
    11. Tinh Doan & David Mar� & Kris Iyer, 2015. "Productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment in New Zealand," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(3), pages 249-275, August.
    12. Philip McCann, 2009. "Economic geography, globalisation and New Zealand's productivity paradox," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 279-314.
    13. Julie Fry, 2014. "Migration and Macroeconomic Performance in New Zealand: Theory and Evidence," Treasury Working Paper Series 14/10, New Zealand Treasury.
    14. Paul Conway & Giuseppe Nicoletti, 2006. "Product Market Regulation in the Non-Manufacturing Sectors of OECD Countries: Measurement and Highlights," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 530, OECD Publishing.
    15. Green, Roy & Agarwal, Renu, 2011. "Management Matters in New Zealand: How Does Manufacturing Measure Up?," Occasional Papers 11/3, Ministry of Economic Development, New Zealand.
    16. Daan Steenkamp, 2013. "Productivity and the New Zealand Dollar: Balassa-Samuelson tests on sectoral data," Reserve Bank of New Zealand Analytical Notes series AN2013/01, Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
    17. Keith McLeod & Richard Fabling & David C. Maré, 2014. "Hiring New Ideas: International Migration and Firm Innovation in New Zealand," Working Papers 14_14, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    18. Gemmell, Norman, 2014. "The Prices of Goods and Services in New Zealand : An International Comparison," Working Paper Series 3276, Victoria University of Wellington, Chair in Public Finance.
    19. Åsa Johansson & Eduardo Olaberría, 2014. "Long-term Patterns of Trade and Specialisation," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1136, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paul Conway, 2016. "Achieving New Zealand's productivity potential," Working Papers 2016/01, New Zealand Productivity Commission.
    2. Rho, Yeirae & Fabrizi, Simona & Lippert, Steffen, 2021. "Employee characteristics, absorptive capacity and innovation," MPRA Paper 106407, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 04 Mar 2021.
    3. Christine de la Maisonneuve, 2016. "How to boost export performance in Greece," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1299, OECD Publishing.
    4. Peter Gal & Alexander Hijzen, 2016. "The short-term impact of product market reforms: A cross-country firm-level analysis," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1311, OECD Publishing.
    5. Matthieu Crozet & Emmanuel Milet & Daniel Mirza, 2013. "The Discriminatory Effect of Domestic Regulations on International Trade in Services: Evidence from Firm-Level Data," Post-Print halshs-00801398, HAL.
    6. John Forth & Alex Bryson, 2019. "Management practices and SME performance," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 66(4), pages 527-558, September.
    7. Dimitrios Exadactylos & Massimo Riccaboni & Armando Rungi, 2019. "Talents from Abroad. Foreign Managers and Productivity in the United Kingdom," Working Papers 01/2019, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, revised Dec 2019.
    8. Matthieu Bussière & Emilia Pérez‐Barreiro & Roland Straub & Daria Taglioni, 2011. "Protectionist Responses to the Crisis: Global Trends and Implications," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34, pages 826-852, May.
    9. Exadaktylos, Dimitrios & Riccaboni, Massimo & Rungi, Armando, 2024. "Talents from abroad. Foreign managers and productivity in the United Kingdom," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    10. Jan Bena & Peter Ondko & Evangelia Vourvachaki, 2011. "Productivity Gains from Services Liberalization in Europe," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp452, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    11. John Forth & Alex Bryson, 2018. "The impact of management practices on SME performance," DoQSS Working Papers 18-04, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    12. Renaud Bourlès & Gilbert Cette & Jimmy Lopez & Jacques Mairesse & Giuseppe Nicoletti, 2013. "Do Product Market Regulations In Upstream Sectors Curb Productivity Growth? Panel Data Evidence For OECD Countries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(5), pages 1750-1768, December.
    13. Criscuolo, Chiara & Andrews, Dan & Gal, Peter N., 2019. "The best versus the rest: divergence across firms during the global productivity slowdown," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103405, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Finicelli, Andrea & Pagano, Patrizio & Sbracia, Massimo, 2013. "Ricardian selection," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 96-109.
    15. Fabling, Richard & Maré, David C. & Stevens, Philip, 2022. "Migration and Firm-Level Productivity," IZA Discussion Papers 15482, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Maria Bas, 2013. "Does Services Liberalization Affect Manufacturing Firms' Export Performance? Evidence from India," Working Papers 2013-17, CEPII research center.
    17. Richard Bräuer & Matthias Mertens & Viktor Slavtchev, 2023. "Import competition and firm productivity: Evidence from German manufacturing," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(8), pages 2285-2305, August.
    18. Trinh, Q. Long & Morgan, Peter J. & Sonobe, Tetsushi, 2020. "Investment behavior of MSMEs during the downturn periods: Empirical evidence from Vietnam," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    19. Matthieu Crozet & Emmanuel Milet & Daniel Mirza, 2012. "The Discriminatory Effect of Domestic Regulations on International Services Trade," Working Papers 2012-02, CEPII research center.
    20. Cecilia Jona Lasinio & Stefano Manzocchi & Valentina Meliciani, 2017. "Knowledge Based Capital and Value Creation in Global Supply Chains," Working Papers LuissLab 17134, Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, LUISS Guido Carli.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    New Zealand; Productivity; Productivity Puzzle; Productivity Slowdown;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N37 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Africa; Oceania
    • O56 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Oceania
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sls:ipmsls:v:34:y:2018:3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CSLS (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cslssca.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.