Eric Crampton is Chief Economist with the New Zealand Initiative.
He applies an economist’s lens to a broad range of policy areas, from devolution and housing policy to student loans and environmental policy. He served on Minister Twyford’s Urban Land Markets Research Group and on Minister Bishop’s Housing Economic Advisory Group.
Most recently, he has been looking at devolution to First Nations in Canada.
He is a regular columnist with Stuff and with Newsroom; his economic and policy commentary appears across most media outlets. He can also be found on Twitter at @ericcrampton.
Phone: +64 4 499 0790
Collective nouns are fun. A murder of crows is great. Read more
Bryan Perry’s regular reports for the Ministry of Social Development represent some of the very best that New Zealand’s public sector has to offer. Statistics New Zealand runs the surveys on household income and household expenditure. Read more
The Crown Accounts are in better shape than had been expected when the Budget was set. That’s the good news. Read more
Voting for local government should be simple. If you think that council has generally done a good job, support most incumbent candidates. Read more
For years, New Zealand productivity has been shortchanging the economy and therefore the country. Why is New Zealand outstripped by the rest of the first world countries, in particular Australia? Read more
Economist Dave Heatley finds himself in something of a quandary. New Zealand’s economists firmly support the Emissions Trading Scheme as the best way of achieving New Zealand’s net zero target. Read more
In this episode Michael Johnston hosts Oliver Hartwich and Eric Crampton to discuss various European crises and how New Zealand should be learning from, and not repeating, the European mistakes. To listen to our latest podcasts, please subscribe to The New Zealand Initiative podcast on iTunes, Spotify or The Podcast App. Read more
Chief Economist at The New Zealand Initiative Dr Eric Crampton is in the studio to talk economics. Tonight he's talking competition and antitrust laws. Read more
Wellington (Wednesday, 28 September 2022) – New Zealand’s economists strongly support the Emissions Trading Scheme and strengthening it through a carbon dividend. The latest survey of members of the New Zealand Association of Economists finds extraordinarily strong agreement that: Tightening the ETS’s cap on emissions makes far more sense than measures like fuel economy standards on imported vehicles (53% strongly agree, 35% agree, 5% disagree); If additional market failures are present, policies should target those directly to reduce the cost of mitigating emissions (24% strongly agree, 57% agree, 2% strongly disagree); A carbon dividend to households beats measures like electric vehicle subsidies or targeted regulations for ensuring equity (45% strongly agree; 48% agree; 2% disagree). Read more
Hard times make for bad thinking. Inflation has been running at 7.3%, or at 7.8% if you remember how the petrol excise holiday works. Read more
As a bit of police theatre, it was outstanding. Police responded to a complaint about a home in Wanaka flying an allegedly racist red flag with an ominous black insignia inscribed within a white circle. Read more
Entrepreneurship is highly rated. My son’s school even renamed their NCEA Level 1 economics paper “Entrepreneurial economics” and their accounting paper “Entrepreneurial finance.” But entrepreneurship remains underrated. Read more
Among the problems leading to the Government’s proposed Three Waters reforms were councils loading up their balance sheets with dubious debt. So it seems odd that the Government plans on loading up the balance sheets of amalgamated water service entities with dubious debt. Read more
This supplementary submission in response to the Emissions Reduction Plan is made by The New Zealand Initiative (the Initiative), a Wellington-based think tank supported primarily by major New Zealand businesses. It should be read in conjunction with our initial submission of 27 June 2022. Read more
Dr Eric Crampton interviews Client Service Lead for Milestone Solutions, Scott Wilson, in this follow up interview to their discussion about transport funding and getting roads built. In this episode they talk about the history of how New Zealand funded and financed roads, and the structures of getting roads approved. Read more