Philip McCann can think of dozens of reasons why New Zealand is an interesting place to be for an urban and regional economist.

“It’s the most geographically isolated developed country with the third lowest population density. At the same time, it’s not only the third most highly urbanised society in the world, but is becoming even more so: one-quarter of the population live in one city, producing more than one-third of the country’s output.”

Professor McCann has come to Waikato Management School from Reading University in the UK. He’s also worked and researched in the United States, Thailand and Japan, analysing things like transport, the migration of people and firms, the growth of cities and real estate markets, the economics of innovation, foreign direct investment and regional economic performance.

“I’m interested in location, and I do what geographers do, but as an economist. New Zealand – for an economist – poses all kinds of problems and challenges; for example, should we be promoting further centralisation, or should we be nervous? How do we promote our trading and foreign direct investment relationships?”

Professor McCann says his future plans include looking at social capital in New Zealand – how education, skills and social networks contribute to economic growth. “I’m interested in analysing the impact on the economy of how people here behave,” he says.

“If we want to promote innovation, successfully commercialise and export our technology and ideas, and attract foreign investment, then we need to know what influences the way people act. That’s really important for policymakers in dealing with the so-called brain drain and also the skills mix of new immigrants.”

Professor McCann has previously acted as an advisor on regional development to the UK government and the NZ Treasury. A prolific researcher and writer (his university textbook on urban and regional economics has been translated into three languages), he says he’s most proud of receiving the 2002 Hewings Award for Outstanding Scholarship from the North American Regional Science Association. He is the only scholar outside North America to win the award.