On 5 November, Te Papa is hosting the Government Economics Network (GEN) Annual Conference for 2014. The conference will look at a range of policy areas and review how modern economic analysis methods could be used in these areas.
Kim Hill from RadioNZ is due to facilitate, including chairing a panel/Q&A discussion for each session. The 2012 conference looked at ‘Welfare Reform, Public Policy and Productivity.’ This year the tag line is a broader statement: ‘The world has changed: Using economics in a changing environment’, which should provide an interesting backdrop for discussion.
Wendy McGuinness will be attending the conference in preparation for the McGuinness Institute’s upcoming workshop LocalNZ – Connecting Youth committed to Local Government. This workshop will be held over four days from 16 November to 19 November in Whanganui. The first two days will be spent at the A Place to Live conference in Whanganui, followed by a day where the participants will focus on workshopping their thoughts and observations. On the fourth and final day (Wednesday 19 November), participants will present their combined thinking at two presentations, both held at Parliament.
GEN was established in 2011 to promote improved use of economics within the New Zealand public sector. The Network enables this by running ‘Knowledge Hubs’ (Share, Connect and Discuss) as well as two specific hubs: the Living Standards Hub and Productivity Hub.