Case Studies
Case study: Age-structural transitions
An ageing society is simply one that is at the end phase of an age-structural transition. As birth cohorts of differing sizes pass through their life-cycles, they have impacts on all aspects of policy and markets, particularly labour markets. On top of that, the transition may be turbulent, as a result of major fluctuations in fertility in the past -- this is the case for Pakeha – and this makes policy formulation more difficult. The University of Waikato’s Population Studies Centre (now part of NIDEA) has devoted a great deal of attention to these issues in its FRST-funded projects, led by Emeritus Professor Ian Pool who has also been heavily involved in research on this theme internationally. Within New Zealand, research in this area has covered national trends, Māori, Pakeha, more recent immigrants and regional differences. NIDEA Director Professor Natalie Jackson has conducted research in Australia showing how metropolitanisation has also produced a counter-trend of the gutting out of rural Australia (and similar regions in New Zealand). Professor Jackson is launching a follow-up study on this in New Zealand.
Case study: Ethnicity counts?
Counting populations by ethnicity is a contentious issue in many parts of the world. The question of whether ‘New Zealander’ should be recognised as a legitimate ethnic group in the census continues to be hotly contested in this country. Parallel debates in other countries have underscored the tension between the political nature of ethnic counting and the demands on statistics agencies to produces objective, scientific classifications and data. NIDEA researcher Dr Tahu Kukutai is developing a new way of thinking about ethnic classification and counting that takes account of changes occurring internationally. Working with US-based researchers, she is developing a unique time-series database that combines census ethnicity questions over the past 25 years with economic, social and political data for around 200 countries. The database will help identify conditions that enhance or suppress ethnic distinctions in the census. Dr Kukutai’s Marsden-funded research will help agencies in New Zealand and abroad to evaluate their practices within a global context, and will also contribute to the broader debate about state practices of ethnic counting and collective ethnic identities.
Case study: Future-proofing our ageing society
New Zealand has an ageing population – people aged 65 and over are expected to make up one-quarter of the population by 2051. But we have very little idea of what our society will look like by then. Researchers at the University of Waikato’s Population Studies Centre (now encompassed by NIDEA) and the Social Policy Research Unit of the Family Centre (FCSPRU) have gathered data to help us better understand the implications of population ageing. The five-year FRST-funded project, Enhancing Wellbeing in an Ageing Society, conducted two surveys of people in mid-life and older people to find out their needs and aspirations in terms of housing, living arrangements, participation in work, attitudes, hopes, support networks, location and life satisfaction. This information has helped the researchers build future scenarios of population ageing. The research also focussed on the study of support systems available to the elderly, and the support and other resources the elderly provide themselves to society. The research project was undertaken by Waikato Professors Richard Bedford, Peggy Koopman-Boyden and Ian Pool, and Charles Waldegrave of the FCSPRU.
Case study: Does home ownership increase social capital?
It is often claimed that there are positive externalities associated with homeownership – homeowners are less mobile and more invested in their neighbourhood and owning a home has a direct positive impact on personal esteem and life satisfaction. These positive externalities are used to justify policies to encourage homeownership. Dr Steven Stillman of Motu Economic and Public Policy Research is working on a Marsden-funded project with Professor Arthur Grimes and Professor John Gibson to analyse the impact of homeownership on social capital. They are examining the relationship between the location of state owned housing, the quality of local amenities and house prices, and the relationship between homeownership and parental participation in school board elections. The researchers have compiled a state housing database covering the period 1993-2009. The 1990s saw a significant sell-off of state houses in New Zealand, while the 2000s saw a material rebuilding of the state house inventory. Because it covers these two distinct policy periods, the database is expected to provide a strong basis for detailed studies on the societal and individual impacts of homeownership and related matters. The research so far on participation in school board elections has found little evidence that homeowners are more likely to vote.
Case study: Longevity and health
Among the most pressing issues facing public policy in the developed world are those relating to health trends in ageing populations. There are three major questions that have health, social and fiscal policy implications: (a) whether or not longevity will extend, or become compressed (ie people will die within a narrower and narrower range of ages above 70 years); (b) whether or not episodes of major illness demanding high cost interventions and prolonged hospitalisation will be extended or also compressed; and (c) the reasons behind lingering health inequalities, by ethnicity and class, that seem difficult to eliminate.
NIDEA’s predecessor organisation, the Population Studies Centre, has undertaken many FRST and HRC funded analyses directed towards these questions, all headed by Emeritus Professor Ian Pool. Recent and ongoing work has linked longevity data to health expectancies (general state of health for remaining lifespan) and to hospitalisations (expected time spent in hospital over remaining lifespan). The research has identified significant gains in efficiency, effectiveness and equity despite several restructurings of the health system since the 1980s. The results challenge many popular beliefs pertaining to New Zealand’s hospital system.
Case study: Immigrants in the New Zealand labour force
New Zealand's labour force is being transformed by international migration. We have the highest per capita rates of both immigration and emigration in the OECD. To achieve growth in productivity and innovation, while sustaining an inclusive society that is accepting of increasing socio-cultural diversity, we need more information on how well migrants and their children integrate into the New Zealand labour market. The FRST-funded Integration of Immigrants Programme (IIP), led by NIDEA economist Jacques Poot and Massey University sociologist Paul Spoonley, is developing econometric models showing how immigrant cohorts from 1996 onwards have integrated into the labour force. This information will be used to identify pathways that overcome barriers to successful integration, and new policy interventions for enhancing outcomes for both the new residents and the host society. IIP also uses new information from specialist surveys and case studies, to provide new policy-relevant evidence of pathways to economic incorporation in the formal labour market as well as in a variety of informal and non-formal ethnic-related settings. These include family businesses, non-paid domestic and family economic activity, self-employment, and paid and unpaid community work.
integrationofimmigrants.massey.ac.nz
Case study: Pacific migration: is it working for both sides?
With almost one-quarter of New Zealand’s population now foreign-born, immigration continues to have a major effect on our economy and society. And in the wider Pacific region, greater labour mobility is increasingly seen as crucial to the development prospects for the Pacific Island economies. Globally, debate centres on whether potential welfare gains from greater international labour mobility exceed those from the full trade liberalisation. But because migrants are usually self-selected, it is difficult to get a clear picture of the impacts of migration. In the Pacific Island-New Zealand Migration Survey (PINZMS), NIDEA researchers Professor John Gibson and Dr Steven Stillman, along with Dr David McKenzie and Dr Halahingano Rohorua, are comparing outcomes for immigrants who enter New Zealand through a random ballot with outcomes for unsuccessful participants in the same ballots who remain in their home countries. The researchers aim to quantify the economic benefits and the health and educational consequences of migrating, and also the effects of remittances on the wealth and health of families who send migrants. This will help policy-makers in both New Zealand and the Pacific to improve the migration process while also contributing uniquely robust evidence to international debates on consequences of expanding immigration.
Case study: Regional differentials in New Zealand - an historical analysis
Under several FRST grants starting in the early 1990s, the University of Waikato’s Population Studies Centre (now part of NIDEA) launched a detailed analysis of regional differences in New Zealand covering the period 1986 to 2001. Led by Emeritus Professor Ian Pool, the research covered demographic dynamics and structures, income, labour force participation, occupations and industries, families and households, benefits, health and convictions. It revealed substantial regional differences: essentially New Zealand has trichotomised into two regions doing well (Auckland and Wellington), a number getting by (such as Waikato and Canterbury) and a number that are slipping badly for most indicators (for example, Northland and Gisborne). These growing inequalities mirror those in the United States and elsewhere in the developed world, documented forcefully in Wilkinson and Pickett’s Spirit Level (Penguin 2009). Similar findings for Australia have emerged in research by NIDEA Director Professor Natalie Jackson, who is currently leading a follow-on project in New Zealand which draws on data from the 2006 census.
