Saturday, 19 September 2015

For a new localism

If you're in Wellington, please join us on the 19th of October for an event launching our coming report on Special Economic Zones.


Khyaati and I have had a lot of fun writing this one. 

The basic idea: national-level policy change has gotten too hard for the same reason that it's often a bad idea. One size doesn't fit all. If we tweak local government financing so that they share in increases in tax revenue their districts send on to central government, they'll have a stronger and direct stake in encouraging growth. They'll also be best placed to identify the regulatory or policy changes that could let them best pursue growth. At the same time, if pressure for policy changes comes from the local governments whose residents stand to benefit, that makes it easier for central government to give it a go. Smaller trials allow for a bit more boldness in policy change. If something works well, it can be rolled out more broadly; if it doesn't, the failure's been confined and can be rolled back more easily than if it applied to the whole country.

I hope to see you on the 19th. You might want to sign up sooner rather than later. We put up the invitation on Friday afternoon and fifty seats were gone by the end of the day.

And, when the report's available, it'll be up here too. 

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