title: Cyclical labour market adjustment in New Zealand: The response of firms to the global financial crisis and its implications for workers, Motu Working Paper 12-04

authors: Fabling, Richard

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: This paper examines the dynamics of employment adjustment in New Zealand, focusing on the response of firms to the 2008/09 Global Financial Crisis. We use data from Statistics New Zealand’s prototype Longitudinal Business Database (LBD) to examine firms’ employment responses to output shocks before and after the crisis, and to investigate variations in job and worker flows. We discuss the resilience of the NZ labour market to economic shocks, and the possible role of labour market policy settings. Finally, we discuss preliminary findings on the differential impact of labour market adjustment on workers – by earnings level, age, gender, and tenure – and outline potential further work along these lines. Our analysis of firm microdata highlights three key features of New Zealand labour market adjustment to the 2008/09 crisis. First, there was considerable heterogeneity across firms, both before and after the crisis, in the size of output shocks that firms faced, the amount of employment adjustment in response to any given output shock, and in the size of worker flows given the firm’s employment adjustment. Second, the crisis not only moved the distribution of output shocks faced by firms, but also altered the relationship between output shocks and changes in job and worker flows and employment. Third, the impact of the observed firm-level dynamics had an uneven impact on workers, with greater employment losses for low wage workers, young workers, and workers with low job tenure.

text: Cyclical labour market adjustment in New Zealand: The response of firms to the global financial crisis and its implications for workers, Motu Working Paper 12-04 This paper examines the dynamics of employment adjustment in New Zealand, focusing on the response of firms to the 2008/09 Global Financial Crisis. We use data from Statistics New Zealand’s prototype Longitudinal Business Database (LBD) to examine firms’ employment responses to output shocks before and after the crisis, and to investigate variations in job and worker flows. We discuss the resilience of the NZ labour market to economic shocks, and the possible role of labour market policy settings. Finally, we discuss preliminary findings on the differential impact of labour market adjustment on workers – by earnings level, age, gender, and tenure – and outline potential further work along these lines. Our analysis of firm microdata highlights three key features of New Zealand labour market adjustment to the 2008/09 crisis. First, there was considerable heterogeneity across firms, both before and after the crisis, in the size of output shocks that firms faced, the amount of employment adjustment in response to any given output shock, and in the size of worker flows given the firm’s employment adjustment. Second, the crisis not only moved the distribution of output shocks faced by firms, but also altered the relationship between output shocks and changes in job and worker flows and employment. Third, the impact of the observed firm-level dynamics had an uneven impact on workers, with greater employment losses for low wage workers, young workers, and workers with low job tenure.

year: 2012-04

title: Crossing new frontiers: extending tephrochronology as a global geoscientific research tool

authors: Abbott, Peter M.

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: Tephrochronology is a unique stratigraphic tool for linking, dating, and synchronising geological, palaeoenvironmental, or archaeological sequences and events (Lowe, 2011; Alloway et al., 2013). It relies on the identification and tracing of tephra or cryptotephra horizons spatially between various depositional sequences. These horizons can provide stratigraphic event layers (tephrostratigraphy) and, when dated, isochronous age markers — since most tephra are deposited on a scale of days to weeks — that can be transferred from site to site (tephrochronology) (Lane et al., 2017b). The correlation of horizons between different sequences is reliant on matching the physical characteristics, mineralogical assemblages, and geochemical compositions of minerals and/or glass shards in tephra deposits using a range of analytical methods and visual and statistical approaches (e.g. Lowe et al., 2017). Correlating tephra deposits back to their volcanic source allows tephrochronological studies to provide information on the eruption frequency and geochemical evolution of volcanic regions and individual volcanoes.

text: Crossing new frontiers: extending tephrochronology as a global geoscientific research tool Tephrochronology is a unique stratigraphic tool for linking, dating, and synchronising geological, palaeoenvironmental, or archaeological sequences and events (Lowe, 2011; Alloway et al., 2013). It relies on the identification and tracing of tephra or cryptotephra horizons spatially between various depositional sequences. These horizons can provide stratigraphic event layers (tephrostratigraphy) and, when dated, isochronous age markers — since most tephra are deposited on a scale of days to weeks — that can be transferred from site to site (tephrochronology) (Lane et al., 2017b). The correlation of horizons between different sequences is reliant on matching the physical characteristics, mineralogical assemblages, and geochemical compositions of minerals and/or glass shards in tephra deposits using a range of analytical methods and visual and statistical approaches (e.g. Lowe et al., 2017). Correlating tephra deposits back to their volcanic source allows tephrochronological studies to provide information on the eruption frequency and geochemical evolution of volcanic regions and individual volcanoes.

year: 2020

title: Opening address

authors: Levy, Michelle Patricia

subjects: Maori

abstract: In 2002, the Māori and Psychology Research Unit at the University of Waikato made a valuable contribution to the teaching and practice of psychology in Aotearoa, via the Māori Graduates of Psychology Symposium. The symposium in 2002, with its theme of “Making a Difference” was designed to: provide an opportunity for exposure to role models; bring together Māori graduates of psychology to network and share information; and through the publication and dissemination of the Symposium proceedings provide a resource for teaching and practice in psychology. With over 100 delegates and 30 presentations, the 2002 symposium was widely acknowledged as a success. It resulted in the compilation of proceedings which have become a valuable resource in psychology. 
While there have been informal gatherings and ongoing networking over the past five years, there have been no formal gatherings since that time. We at the Māori and Psychology Research Unit consider it timely in 2007, five years on, to convene another Symposium. Our conversations with Pacific psychologists and recognition of the ties which exist between us as Pacific nations, saw our focus expand to include Pacific psychologists and psychologies.

text: Opening address In 2002, the Māori and Psychology Research Unit at the University of Waikato made a valuable contribution to the teaching and practice of psychology in Aotearoa, via the Māori Graduates of Psychology Symposium. The symposium in 2002, with its theme of “Making a Difference” was designed to: provide an opportunity for exposure to role models; bring together Māori graduates of psychology to network and share information; and through the publication and dissemination of the Symposium proceedings provide a resource for teaching and practice in psychology. With over 100 delegates and 30 presentations, the 2002 symposium was widely acknowledged as a success. It resulted in the compilation of proceedings which have become a valuable resource in psychology. 
While there have been informal gatherings and ongoing networking over the past five years, there have been no formal gatherings since that time. We at the Māori and Psychology Research Unit consider it timely in 2007, five years on, to convene another Symposium. Our conversations with Pacific psychologists and recognition of the ties which exist between us as Pacific nations, saw our focus expand to include Pacific psychologists and psychologies.

year: 2008