Major Grants
Motu is primarily funded by research grants. This page lists our major grants. You can also read about the research Motu is conducting by research area.
This is not yet a complete list of grants. We will be transferring more grants to this page over the coming months.
Markets and Water Quality: Integrated Assessment for Policy Design, 2007–
Markets and Water Quality is a five-year joint project with NIWA, GNS and others. It was funded by the Foundation for Research Science and Technology (now MSI) under Motu’s water quality programme. Under the grant, researchers design and simulate a nutrient trading market for the Lake Rotorua catchment and work with a group of local stakeholders to develop practical policy. The programme has two components: building an integrated policy simulation model, NManager; and investigating nutrient trading policies and regulation frameworks under uncertainty.
Integrated Economics of Climate Change, 2007–
Integrated Economics of Climate Change is a five-year project to create models of how climate change will affect New Zealand’s economy. The project focuses on issues relevant to climate change policy. It also explores how policies and institutions affect the ways New Zealand companies and individuals adapt and respond to climate change.
Coordination and Cooperation for Effective Climate Policy Design and Implementation, 2009–2012
Coordination and Cooperation for Effective Climate Policy Design and Implementation is funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in a three-year grant to provide empirical evidence and a clear conceptual framework to encourage cooperation, enabling the Emissions Trading System (ETS) to be applied effectively in agriculture, and to facilitate the coordination required for the rapid uptake of new adaptation and mitigation technology.
Improving Health System Performance: An Economic Analysis of Primary Health Care Reform, 2009–
This major grant from the Health Research Council of New Zealand funds work in Motu’s Labour and Population Economics programme and involves evaluating the impact of the Primary Health Care Strategy on access to and utilisation of primary and secondary healthcare services, and health status.
Nutrient Mapping Study, 2011–
This collaboration between Motu’s water quality team and NIWA is working on producing a series of national maps of nitrogen and phosphorus loads and concentrations for the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. These maps were designed to help the PCE investigate the potential for mitigating nutrient discharges from agricultural sources.
Home Ownership and Neighbourhood Wellbeing, 2008–2011
This three-year Marsden grant investigated the determinants and effects of homeownership, ranging from tax and price considerations to the effects on population mobility, social capital, and community outcomes.
Determinants of Firm and Population Location in Auckland, 2009–2011
In 2011 the Economic Geography programme completed major work on this project, funded by the Auckland Policy Office, which researched the determinants of location decisions of firms and people across Auckland. The project provided hedonic estimates of the ways firms and people value different local amenities, as well as estimating the impacts of local amenities on firm productivity.
Trans-Tasman Migration, 2009–2011
The Trans-Tasman Migration project, funded by the Department of Labour, involved researchers at Motu and affiliates at the University of Auckland and ANU. It focused on self-selection among international and trans-Tasman migrants, examining the ways in which return to human capital differ across the Tasman for similar migrants. It was part of Motu’s migration programme.
Evaluation of the New Zealand Insulation Fund, 2010–2011
This collaborative project was conducted by Motu in collaboration with the University of Otago Wellington School of Medicine, Covec, and Victoria University of Wellington. Funded by the Ministry for Economic Development, the project evaluated the effectiveness of the New Zealand Insulation Fund in improving household health outcomes and in reducing household energy usage.
Adjustment and Inequality, 2002–2007
The Motu Adjustment and Inequality research programme was a five year research project funded by the Foundation of Research, Science, and Technology (FoRST). Overall, the research helped summarise and understand the pattern of adjustment that occurs in response to exogenous economic and social change (“shocks”) and the way that these adjustments promote improved well-being, and looked to anticipate the impacts of future changes.