matthew.hickman

Matt specialises in the economic appraisal of project and policies covering the private, local government and central government sectors. Matt has a keen interest in ensuring that quality project and policy advice is prepared and fits seamlessly with the decision making process.

His recent experience has covered reviews of policy development, management of regulatory impact analysis processes to ensure quality outputs, preparation of robust business cases and studies examining the economic evaluation of intangibles.

Study for a government department examining a policy processes conducted between 2006 - 2009. This involved the extensive review of original material, assessment of documents against agreed criteria and analysis of the process as a whole.

The review highlighted areas where the process could have been stronger and what key changes may result in a more robust process.

Chair of the Ministry for the Environment's regulatory impact analysis panel. This leadership role included independent quality assurance of the Ministry's RIS's, analyses and discussion documents; mentoring of senior staff in a robust policy process; and providing guidance and advice to the Ministry as a whole.

The Ministry was independently reviewed to be in the top two departments across the state sector for processes associated with regulatory impact analysis.

Project manager for the Ministry for the Environment's Information Strategy CBA/RIS project focusing on fresh water. This project is examining ways to improve the evidence base to feed into robust policy making.

A gap analysis was completed highlighting areas where information is lacking. This identified areas where primary will be conducted.

Development of a robust policy framework for Phase 1 of the New Start for Fresh Water. This ensured policy analysts were considering the types of questions that ministers need to know - what is the problem, what evidence informs the problem and what are the options to fix the problem.

All workstreams were consistent in their approach ensuring comparability and a solid evidence base for Phase 2.

Cost-benefit analysis of options around a national policy statement for renewable electricity generation. Analysis including deriving costs of proposed interventions and comparing with the potential benefits, which were primarily qualitative in nature.

Analysis fed into Section 32 document which informed a public Board of Inquiry process.

Cost-benefit analysis and Section 32 preparation for New Zealand's first national environmental standard. Analysis included deriving costs of the NES from primary research via surveys and the use of health modelling to determine the benefits. The value of reducing premature mortality was quantified in monetary terms.

The analysis showed that there were substantial health benefits from improving air quality that significantly outweighed the costs.