Case Studies

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  • Quality assurance for aquaculture reform : UAE valuation formula

    As part of its review of regulations around aquaculture development, the Ministry of Fisheries asked NZIER to provide some guidance. The research focused on calculating the compensation if aquaculture produced an undue adverse effect (UAE) on fishing quota. NZIER assessed the impacts of three methods - quota trade price, business loss calculation, and arbitrator judgement - in setting the amount of compensation. No single method was best; they had various degrees of efficacy, transactions costs, certainty, efficiency, and equity.

  • Healthcare programme evaluation

    ACC sought an independent evaluation to confirm whether a new primary care programme resulted in speedier recovery from work injury and net savings. Jean-Pierre led the NZIER team that analysed ACC claims data to test for statistically significant changes in key indicators.

    Outcome : This evidence enabled ACC to decide about the future of the programme.

  • Expert witness

    One of our clients’ resource consents, to build a new gas-fired electricity generation plant, was appealed to the Environment Court. The appellants proposed that the resource consent should be made conditional on the planting of trees to offset carbon dioxide emissions.

  • Competition analysis

    The Commerce Act prohibits business acquisitions that may substantially lessen competition. But the Commerce Commission may authorise an acquisition if the public benefits outweigh the costs. We worked with a client to gauge the competition effects of a proposed acquisition, and helped prepare an application to the Commerce Commission. Our sound understanding of our client’s industry and the Commission’s requirements gave the client certainty in choosing their strategy.

  • Healthcare services

    One of our clients sought evidence of the impact of changing subsidy levels on access to healthcare services. It was possible to temporarily increase subsidies in selected parts of the country. Changes in access in those parts were compared to access in other parts of the country, using statistical techniques. We were able to go further and identify how other healthcare services were affected. This gave the client a robust assessment of the costs and benefits of the piloted initiative.

  • Market design

    We advised a group of clients on what would need to be in place to have a workable market for emission permits. This drew on international literature on markets for environmental permits, and our in-house capability in successfully designing markets. Many of the identified components for such a market adapted to New Zealand’s circumstances informed subsequent legislation.

  • Procurement policy analysis

    One major buyer of services in New Zealand sought our assistance to evaluate their proposed procurement policy – in particular whether it would deliver value for money, and if and how it might affect the supplier market. We studied local market data and reviewed the international literature to give the client confidence in their approach and offered advice on how to mitigate risks we uncovered in the process.

  • Trade data analysis

    One of our clients asked us to study  global trade data in their industry to better understand the price and volume drivers, and long term prospects. Our findings challenged the assumptions on which the client’s business growth strategy was based. The scenarios helped the client adapt their investment strategy.

  • Modelling in the export sector

    We helped a major primary sector exporter to examine the key drivers of production and pricing in its sector. We built a model that allowed the exporter to see how changes in productivity, land use, market pricing and product mix would affect its revenue out to 2025. This tool highlighted constraints on future growth and tested the firm’s assumptions about what was realistic. It gave senior management certainty and allowed a richer discussion with their Board on growth strategy.

  • Impact of transport changes on national and regional economies

    A client was interested in how proposed changes to the transport services they provided would impact on the national and regional economies. We were able to show that their planned changes would have a small negative flow-on impact, and that this should not be a deciding factor in determining their approach.

  • Modelling the New Zealand economy

    One industry organisation wanted to understand how predicted growth in its various sub-sectors would impact on the New Zealand economy out to 2025. We custom built an economic model showing the sub-sectors and linkages with the wider economy. Our analysis showed the contributions of these sub-sectors to employment and living standards across the economy. This provided the client an evidence-base to discuss Government support to facilitate expansion, and for strategy development and marketing.

  • Computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling

    We use our economy-wide, computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling to help our clients consider industry and regional impacts of policy changes and large investment proposals. Examples include the effects of the Emissions Trading Scheme, freezing import tariffs, and fiscal policy to support the economy through the global financial crisis.