Staff news TDB extends a warm welcome to two new staff members, Ben Shen and Matthew Barry. Ben grew up in Shanghai and moved to New Zealand when he was 15. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Auckland where he published his thesis: [...]
Continued decline in smoking rates Last year TDB Advisory and Infometrics undertook a cost-effectiveness review of the controversial Smoked Tobacco Amendment Act. Our report projected that smoking rates were already declining to the point that the country did not need a ban to achieve the Smokefree national target. The results of the latest [...]
The double-edged sword of AI AI and its potential impacts on society is a common topic in the TDB office. Many of us are wondering about AI – how and when to use it – and whether it poses a threat or an opportunity to their industry. According [...]
Cost-effectiveness Review of Tobacco Regulation In pursuit of the Smokefree 2025 Goal, the recently legislated Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022 made three significant changes to tobacco regulation in New Zealand: decreasing the number of smoked tobacco retailers by over 90%; reducing the [...]
Ports: what role for mixed ownership? The great majority of the international published and peer reviewed empirical literature finds that a degree of private ownership tends to improve firms’ performance on average and over time. Key reasons are that the incentives and ability to monitor 100% government-owned [...]
Livestock Export Ban – the Wellbeing Impacts In 2021/22, around 150,000 livestock were exported by sea, with a total value of $382m. All livestock exports by sea were cattle to China, largely for new dairy farms. Under the Animal Welfare Amendment Bill, this trade will cease. The Bill [...]
How are the Government’s Commercial Businesses Faring? Currently, the government owns or part-owns eighteen large commercial businesses with combined assets totalling $78 billion. These businesses include three electricity generator/retailers, an airline, a post/courier company, a bank and minority stakes in three airports amongst other enterprises. Together these [...]
Staff news Welcome to Simon TDB Advisory would like to warmly welcome and introduce our new summer intern and part-time analyst, Simon McSweeney-Harte. Simon recently completed a BA/BCom majoring in Finance, Economics and International Relations and has begun studying towards his Honours degree in Economics at VUW. George begins MBA [...]
Dairy Sector - Extending the Boundaries As part of its frontier firms inquiry, the Productivity Commission asked TDB to investigate a pillar of the New Zealand economy – the dairy sector. Our paper looks at the economic significance of the industry, the regulatory environment, the extent of competition and the [...]
The year of Zoom Welcome to the November 2020 edition of the TDB Digest. For many of our readers, lockdown life this year saw just about everything moved to Zoom or other video-conference providers, from client meetings to team chats to Friday work beers. Despite the drop [...]