David McKenzie champions actionable research

New Zealander David McKenzie decided to study econometrics – statistics applied to economics – so he could “answer interesting questions about the world.”

His research has taken him places both intellectually and geographically. It all began with questions about the migrant community in Auckland, the city where he conducted his research. He quickly found himself traveling to Tonga, Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico and Ghana, where his focus became as varied as the countries he visited.

He has looked at everything from disaster recovery to stagnation in certain microenterprise projects. This September, McKenzie presented a paper at the Transnationality of Migrants conference in Venice about development impacts of New Zealand’s new seasonal worker program for Tonga and Vanuatu. He also contributed to research that allowed Pacific island nations to send remittances via the Internet, a more cost-effective method than wire transfer and ATM services.

His passion lies in how to get other researchers to diversify their interests and provide research that is actionable for policymakers.

“I like to work on a number of different things at once so long as it interests me and I feel I have something to add,” McKenzie said. “As researchers, we have raised funding, designed surveys, and carried out our studies according to our own interests and timetables.”

He feels he and his colleagues would be more effective if they take a closer look at policies being enacted by national governments and the World Bank.

For McKenzie, keeping it real is the best way to be a leader.

“I think [it’s] a willingness to be humble about how little we actually know about what works and what doesn’t in so many areas of development,” he said, “and a strong desire to work towards generating evidence to fill these information gaps.”

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