New Zealand

This paper explores the relationship between adoption of ultra-fast broadband (UFB) and the export propensity of New Zealand firms. Previous literature have shown that the Internet facilitates exports by reducing search costs and informational frictions in establishing trade relationships. However, the role of faster Internet that enables the use of more recent, advanced, data-intensive digital technologies has not been well explored. This paper shows empirically that adoption of fibre broadband is associated with a higher propensity to enter exporting by New Zealand firms, suggesting that faster Internet has an additional role over traditional Internet in facilitating exporting. The paper also shows that firms that were already using the Internet more intensively prior to adopting fibre experience a stronger increase in export propensity following fibre adoption than those with less intensive Internet use, and that the positive relationship between fibre uptake and exporting is primarily observed among services firms. Instrumental variable analysis to assess the causal relationship between fibre uptake and exporting suggests that the higher export entry among fibre users is driven by self-selection of firms with higher export propensity into fibre uptake.

This paper overviews structural reforms that promote the diffusion of digital technologies and investment in intangible capital that maximises the potential of these technologies in New Zealand. Effective use of digital technologies enables New Zealand citizens to participate in society in a more inclusive way, firms to strengthen competitiveness and better integrate into the global economy, and the government to offer better services. New Zealand has room to boost its relatively low productivity level by removing the structural bottlenecks holding back the expansion of its digital sector and digital innovation. There are severe shortages of specialised ICT skills owing to COVID-19-related border restrictions and a weak domestic pipeline of these skills that partly results from school students’ poor mathematics achievement. Some regulations have not kept pace with technological change and risk constraining digital innovation while failing to prevent harmful activities. More intensive use of digital tools is also held back by the low availability of high-speed Internet connections in rural areas and a lack of financial support for small businesses. Weak coordination between export promotion and innovation support prevents young firms investing in digital innovation from reaping high returns through exporting. New Zealand should rigorously implement its new national digitalisation strategy so that government agencies and social partners can advance digital transformation.

The longer run consequences of the pandemic will partly hinge on its impact on high productivity firms, and the ongoing process of labour reallocation from low to high productivity firms. While Schumpeter (1939) proposed that recessions can accelerate this process, the nature of the COVID-19 shock coupled with a policy response that prioritised preservation (over reallocation) raises questions about whether job reallocation remained productivity-enhancing. Using novel, near-real-time data for Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, this paper shows that while labour turnover fell in response to the pandemic, job reallocation remained connected to firm productivity – that is, high productivity firms were more likely to expand and low productivity firms were more likely to contract. The pandemic coincided with a temporary strengthening of the reallocation-productivity link in Australia – but a weakening in New Zealand – which appears related to the design of job retention schemes. Finally, firms that intensively used Apps to manage their business were more resilient, even after controlling for productivity. Thus, while policy partly suppressed creative destruction, the nature of the shock – i.e. one where being online and able to operate remotely were key – favoured high productivity and tech-savvy firms, resulting in a reallocation of labour to such firms. The use of timely, novel data to investigate the allocative effects of the pandemic marks a significant advance, given that the seminal paper on productivity-enhancing reallocation during the Great Recession arrived some six years after Lehman Brothers collapsed.

The bulk of government investment is done at the local level in OECD countries, representing on average 41% of total public investment. Most studies on subnational government debt focus on the regional or state level, and very few studies analyse public investment specifically by local governments. This paper aims at filling this gap, presenting a framework to analyse the key factors, which affect the capacity of local governments to fund and finance public investment, and illustrates the framework with five case studies: Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands and New Zealand.

The COVID-19 crisis has had a profound impact on SME access to finance. In particular, the sudden drop in revenues created acute liquidity shortages, threatening the survival of many viable businesses. The report documents an increase in demand for bank lending in the first half of 2020, and a steady supply of credit thanks to government interventions. On the other hand, other sources of finance declined, in particular early-stage equity. This paper, a special edition of Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs, focuses on the impacts of COVID-19 on SME access to finance, along with government policy responses. It reveals that the pre-crisis financing environment was broadly favourable for SMEs and entrepreneurs, who benefited from low interest rates, loose credit standards and an increasingly diverse offer of financing instruments. It documents the unprecedented scope and scale of the policy responses undertaken by governments world-wide, and details their key characteristics, and outlines the principal issues and policy challenges for the next phases of the pandemic, such as the over-indebtedness of SMEs and the need to continue to foster a diverse range of financing instruments for SMEs.