In 2024, the Parks Leaders Forum commissioned the Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit (AERU) at Lincoln University to design a national infrastructure for collecting, synthesising and analysing data that can be used to create reliable evidence on the various forms in which national, regional and local parks contribute to the economic prosperity and wellbeing of New Zealanders.

Following on from the successful Integrating Value Chains programme, this research is testing whether the key characteristics identified in that programme as important for a successful value chain have validity for designing a new value chain for a New Zealand land-based export product.

Integrating Value Chains tested whether New Zealand’s world-renowned reputation for food and fibre would allow our producers and processors to capture higher returns for agri-food exports.

In their new book, authors from the AERU set out a wellbeing economics framework that directly addresses fundamental issues affecting wellbeing outcomes. Drawing inspiration from the capabilities approach of Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, the book demonstrates how people can enhance prosperity through their own actions and through collaboration with others.

AERU researcher Dr Sini Miller assessed how Canterbury residents value and trade off multiple attributes of freshwater use, developing policy scenarios to explore impacts on employment, as well as the environmental, recreation, and cultural values associated with water.

The AERU was contracted by Ihi Research and Development to perform a cost-benefit analysis of the He Toki ki te Mahi initiative, and provide an analysis of the initiative's economic impact.

The AERU and Ihi Research produced a discussion paper as part of a work programme to develop New Zealand Treasury’s Living Standards Framework (LSF). The purpose of the paper was to analyse culture and wellbeing in the context of the LSF.

Professor Paul Dalziel presented the AERU wellbeing economics and public policy framework to analyse distinctive roles of public policy in the development and utilisation of knowledge.

The Primary Sector Council commissioned the AERU to prepare a situational analysis that provided a global perspective and a national context for developing a refreshed vision for food and fibre sector at a time of unprecedented change.