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Our Research

Education and skills

This work studies the pathways students take after completing compulsory education. It uses Statistics New Zealand’s Integrated Data Infrastructure to investigate the drivers and economic consequences of students’ decisions regarding education and work, including analyses of how the pathways taken vary for sub-populations such as different ethnic groups.

Our research focus

Motu’s current and recent research in education and skills includes:

The role of education and worker skills in contributing to innovation and productivity growth of New Zealand firms.

Motu is a partner with Auckland University and others in Te Pūnaha Matatini, a Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) funded by the Tertiary Education Commission. Te Pūnaha Matatini is mapping the innovation system of New Zealand using methods from network analysis, and testing how the properties of the NZ innovation network affect the performance of firms and people in New Zealand.

Publications

Building on strengths: Educational pathways that benefit Māori students

Authors: Isabelle Sin | Shannon Minehan

Working Paper

An economic analysis of pathways through education leading to strong outcomes for Māori students, and how these differ by gender - and for students with different interests and aptitudes in high school. The authors focus…

Returns to adult education and training in New Zealand

Authors: Dean Hyslop | Lynn Riggs | Trinh Le

Working Paper

In this paper we analyse the impact of adult education and training on labour market outcomes. Using the New Zealand Household Labour Force Survey linked to administrative education and earnings data, we estimate that on…

Characteristics of Adults undertaking Education and Training in New Zealand

Authors: Dean Hyslop | Lynn Riggs | Trinh Le

Note

In this paper we analyse the education and training and labour market outcomes of adults aged 25-64 in New Zealand, using data sources from Statistics New Zealand’s Integrated Data Infrastructure as well as from publicly…

Mapping the global influence of published research on industry and innovation

Author: Adam Jaffe

Article

This article by Osmat A Jefferson, Adam Jaffe, Doug Ashton, Ben Warren, Deniz Koellhofer, Uwe Dulleck, Aaron Ballagh, John Moe, Michael DiCuccio, Karl Ward, Geoff Bilder, Kevin Dolby & Richard A Jefferson appeared in Nature Biotechnology…

Productivity and the Allocation of Skills

Authors: Dave Maré | Trinh Le | Nathan Chappell | Richard Fabling

Working Paper

Graduates learn skills
Earnings and production grow
Does the job matter?

We use linked employer-employee data from 2004–2012, combined with individual qualifications data from 1994–2012, to study how graduates with different skills…

Ideas for Growth?

Author: Dave Maré

Working Paper

There is much talk of the knowledge economy, and the central role of ideas and knowledge in generating economic growth.

This paper provides a brief review of the economic literature on how skills/knowledge/ideas might contribute to…