IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mtu/wpaper/08_11.html

The Long-Run Impact of New Zealand's Structural Reform on Local Communities

Author

Listed:
  • Steven Stillman

    (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research)

  • Malathi Velamuri

    (Victoria University of Wellington)

Abstract

New Zealand underwent a period of comprehensive market-oriented economic reforms from 1984-93. In this paper, we use data from the 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001 Censuses to examine the long-run impact that these reforms had on local communities. We analyse the adjustment process in 140 local labour market areas (LMAs) by creating three measures of the impact of structural reform on local communities - an employment-based measure, a population measure and a housing price measure - and examine the persistence of these shocks over time. We find that communities which experienced smaller employment shocks have higher employment rates, higher average incomes and a more skilled workforce in the medium and long-term. Population shocks also have positive, sizeable and persistent effect on average incomes and population in the future. Overall, the initial impacts of the reforms undertaken in New Zealand on local communities appear to still endure more than a decade later.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven Stillman & Malathi Velamuri, 2008. "The Long-Run Impact of New Zealand's Structural Reform on Local Communities," Motu Working Papers 08_11, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:mtu:wpaper:08_11
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://motu-www.motu.org.nz/wpapers/08_11.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Spilimbergo, Antonio & Kwon, Goohoon, 2005. "Russia's Regions: Income Volatility, Labour Mobility and Fiscal Policy," CEPR Discussion Papers 5265, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    2. Bover, Olympia & Muellbauer, John & Murphy, Anthony, 1989. "Housing, Wages and UK Labour Markets," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 51(2), pages 97-136, March.
    3. Paul Dalziel, 2002. "New Zealand's Economic Reforms: An assessment," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 31-46.
    4. Lewis Evans & Arthur Grimes & Bryce Wilkinson, 1996. "Economic Reform in New Zealand 1984-95: The Pursuit of Efficiency," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 34(4), pages 1856-1902, December.
    5. Olivier Jean Blanchard & Lawrence F. Katz, 1992. "Regional Evolutions," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 23(1), pages 1-76.
    6. Ralph Lattimore, 2003. "Long Run Trends in New Zealand Industry Assistance," Motu Working Papers 03_11, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    7. John McMillan, 1998. "Managing Economic Change: Lessons from New Zealand," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(6), pages 827-843, August.
    8. repec:bla:econom:v:69:y:2002:i:274:p:273-93 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Gibson, John K & Harris, Richard I D, 1996. "Trade Liberalisation and Plant Exit in New Zealand Manufacturing," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 78(3), pages 521-529, August.
    10. Grimes, Arthur & Mare, David & Morten, Melanie, 2007. "Adjustment in Local Labour and Housing Markets," Motu Working Papers 292850, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    11. Maloney, Tim, 2000. "The impact of welfare reform on labour supply behaviour in New Zealand," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 427-448, July.
    12. Robert E. Hall, 1970. "Why Is the Unemployment Rate So High at Full Employment?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 1(3), pages 369-410.
    13. Topel, Robert H, 1986. "Local Labor Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 111-143, June.
    14. Easton, Brian, 1994. "Economic and Other Ideas behind the New Zealand Reforms," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 10(3), pages 78-94, Autumn.
    15. Lang, Kevin, 1998. "The Effect of Trade Liberalization on Wages and Employment: The Case of New Zealand," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(4), pages 792-814, October.
    16. Lattimore, Ralph, 2003. "Longrun Trends In New Zealand Industry Assistance," Motu Working Papers 293016, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    17. Wai Kin Choy & David C Mare & Peter Mawson, 2002. "Modelling Regional Labour Market Adjustment in New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 02/01, New Zealand Treasury.
    18. Robert A. Lawson & Edward Bierhanzl, 2004. "Labor Market Flexibility: An Index Approach to Cross-Country Comparisons," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 25(1), pages 117-126, January.
    19. Johnes, Geraint & Hyclak, Thomas, 1994. "House Prices, Migration, and Regional Labor Markets," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 312-329, December.
    20. Grafton, R-Q & Hazleding, T & Buchardt, B, 1997. "The New Zealand Economic Revolution : Lessons for Canada?," Working Papers 9705e, University of Ottawa, Department of Economics.
    21. Papps, Kerry L. & Newell, James O., 2002. "Identifying Functional Labour Market Areas in New Zealand: A Reconnaissance Study Using Travel-to-Work Data," IZA Discussion Papers 443, IZA Network @ LISER.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Isabelle Sin & Steven Stillman, 2016. "Economic liberalisation and the mobility of minority groups: evidence from Māori in New Zealand," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-18, December.
    2. Eugenio Levi & Isabelle Sin & Steven Stillman, 2021. "Understanding the Origins of Populist Political Parties and the Role of External Shocks," CESifo Working Paper Series 9036, CESifo.
    3. Michael Ryan, 2020. "An Anchor in Stormy Seas: Does Reforming Economic Institutions Reduce Uncertainty? Evidence from New Zealand," Working Papers in Economics 20/11, University of Waikato.
    4. Gani, Azmat & Scrimgeour, Frank, 2016. "New Zealand's trade with Asia and the role of good governance," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 36-53.
    5. Nolan, Matt, 2018. "Did tax-transfer policy change New Zealand disposable income inequality between 1988 and 2013?," Working Paper Series 7661, Victoria University of Wellington, Chair in Public Finance.
    6. Eugenio Levi & Isabelle Sin & Steven Stillman, 2024. "The lasting impact of external shocks on political opinions and populist voting," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(1), pages 349-374, January.

    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. Eugenio Levi & Isabelle Sin & Steven Stillman, 2021. "Understanding the Origins of Populist Political Parties and the Role of External Shocks," Motu Working Papers 21_09, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    2. Eugenio Levi & Isabelle Sin & Steven Stillman, 2024. "The lasting impact of external shocks on political opinions and populist voting," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(1), pages 349-374, January.
    3. Ralph G. Lattimore, 2019. "The Composition of New Zealand Exports 1989-2018," Working Papers in Economics 19/10, University of Waikato.
    4. Chatterjee, Srikanta & Dalziel, Paul & Daunfeldt, Sven-Olov & Podder, Nripesh, 2008. "Income Inequality and Transformation of the Welfare State: A Comparative Study of the Reforms in New Zealand and Sweden," HUI Working Papers 20, HUI Research.
    5. Edward B. Montgomery, 1994. "Patterns in Regional Labor Market Adjustment: The United States versus Japan," NBER Chapters, in: Social Protection versus Economic Flexibility: Is There a Trade-Off?, pages 95-118, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. David G. Blanchflower & Andrew J. Oswald, 2005. "The Wage Curve Reloaded," NBER Working Papers 11338, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Aida Caldera Sánchez & Alain de Serres & Naomitsu Yashiro, 2017. "Reforming in a Difficult Macroeconomic Context: A Review of Issues and Recent Literature," Journal of International Commerce, Economics and Policy (JICEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 8(01), pages 1-41, February.
    8. Raven E. Saks, 2005. "Job creation and housing construction: constraints on metropolitan area employment growth," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2005-49, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    9. Galiani, Sebastian & Lamarche, Carlos & Porto, Alberto & Sosa-Escudero, Walter, 2005. "Persistence and regional disparities in unemployment (Argentina 1980-1997)," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 375-394, July.
    10. Wouter Vermeulen & J. van Ommeren, 2006. "Compensation of regional unemployment in housing markets," CPB Discussion Paper 57, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    11. Inmaculada Garcia-Mainar & Victor Montuenga-Gomez, 2003. "The Spanish Wage Curve: 1994-1996," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(9), pages 929-945.
    12. Pantuosco, Lou & Parker, Darrell, 1998. "Sources of Prevailing Differences in Unemployment Rates For Selected Regional Pairs," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 28(2), pages 35-46, Fall.
    13. Sewin Chan, 1998. "Spatial Lock-in: Do Falling House Prices Constrain Residential Mobility?," Departmental Working Papers 199816, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
    14. Sholeh A. Maani, 2004. "Why Have Maori Relative Income Levels Deteriorated Over Time?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 80(248), pages 101-124, March.
    15. Grimes, Arthur & Kerr, Suzi & Aitken, Andrew, 2003. "Housing And Economic Adjustment," Motu Working Papers 293009, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    16. John Kennan & James R. Walker, 2011. "The Effect of Expected Income on Individual Migration Decisions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(1), pages 211-251, January.
    17. Kline, Patrick, 2008. "Understanding Sectoral Labor Market Dynamics: An Equilibrium Analysis of the Oil and Gas Field Services Industry," Working Papers 43, Yale University, Department of Economics.
    18. Michael Ryan, 2020. "An Anchor in Stormy Seas: Does Reforming Economic Institutions Reduce Uncertainty? Evidence from New Zealand," Working Papers in Economics 20/11, University of Waikato.
    19. Lee, Yoonsoo, 2008. "Geographic redistribution of US manufacturing and the role of state development policy," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 436-450, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:mtu:wpaper:08_11. 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: Emma Williams (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/motuenz.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.