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An economist says film subsidy regimes are wasteful competition as countries scramble to attract film productions.
The Government's signed a memorandum of understanding with Amazon for a 25 per cent subsidy on its Lord of the Rings TV series.
New Zealand Initiative economist Eric Crampton told Heather du Plessis-Allan the international literature on film subsidies is pretty pessimistic about any net economic benefit.
"The boosters of these things tend to overestimate the benefits, and we worry that money could have spent may have had benefits in other places the money could have been spent instead."
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