Donal Curtin

2 weeks ago | economicsnz.blogspot.com | Donal Curtin

Ignoring the predictably partisan knee-jerk assessments from the usual suspects, there were two broad camps of reaction to yesterday's Budget. One was that it didn't actually do enough to boost growth, its signature objective. The accelerated investment incentive is fine, especially given that part of our productivity problem relates to New Zealanders working with less capital equipment than their counterparts overseas, but it's having to do a lot of work on its own.

Feb 23, 2025 | acuitymag.com | Abigail Murison |Donal Curtin

Ever wondered what to do when an offer of employment is withdrawn? What about the best course of action for when your contracted hours are higher than the typical weekly maximum? In our most recent ‘agony aunt’ column, we ask the experts - managing director of recruitment company Robert Half New Zealand, Megan Alexander CA, and HR professional and adviser at Ombpoint, Holly Wilson, for advice on these two common work contract queries. Read on to find out what they had to say.

Feb 23, 2025 | acuitymag.com | Abigail Murison |Donal Curtin

3 min read Did you know that pets at work may help reduce stress, increase productivity and improve employee satisfaction, teamwork and collaboration? According to a survey of pet owners by Heart.org, pet ownership does so much more than give you a great companion: when a dog joins a collaborative setting, group members rank their teammates higher in terms of trust, team cohesion and camaraderie.

Aug 21, 2024 | economicsnz.blogspot.com | Donal Curtin

The 35th Annual Workshop of the Competition and Policy Institute of New Zealand (CLPINZ) was held last week at the Northern Club in Auckland, and - despite breaching the universally acknowledged convention that every Kiwi conference must at some point offer sausage rolls - was otherwise a well-attended and highly interesting day and a half. Hat tip to the organisers on the Board of CLPINZ and to the indispensable Charlotte Emery at Conference Innovators.

Jul 23, 2024 | economicsnz.blogspot.com | Donal Curtin

This month's publication of the OECD's latest product market regulation indices came up with a few surprises (here are the key takeaways across all the countries surveyed, and the country note on New Zealand. Tragic regulation wonks might like to look at the questionnaire questions and the note on methodology). Overall the OECD's overall measure of product measure regulation put New Zealand essentially at the OECD average. That's not too shabby, but arguably not good enough.