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
In a prior academic life, I taught public choice – the economic analysis of political decision-making. During the week of lessons on the economics of bureaucracy, the students went through the consequences of the bureaus holding an information advantage over their ministerial masters. Read more
It is about time Workplace Relations Minister Iain Lees-Galloway investigates one of the more egregious employment rorts out there. An employer – and not an obscure one – pays far less than the minimum wage. Read more
Eric Crampton talks to Magic Talk’s Stephen McIvor about why congestion charging could be the answer to traffic woes. Read more
Wellington City Council has officially thrown its weight behind enabling a congestion charge for inner-city motorists. In our recent report Pricing Out Congestion, we make the case for congestion pricing and show that Wellingtonians spent almost five days in stationary traffic in 2018. Read more
With a number of Kiwis up for Oscars at this years Academy Awards, thanks to Taika Waititi's film Jojo Rabbit, Eric Crampton speaks to Breakfast about the millions of dollars of subsidies being offered to attract foreign films to be shot in New Zealand and discusses if this is a fair and sensible use of taxpayers money.
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Last week, Transport Minister Phil Twyford shot down Wellington Council's request to levy a congestion charge. Congestion charging would help ease traffic, and not just in Wellington. Read more
I’m not convinced there’s anything wrong with a tie. Why are we always trying to break them? Read more
Moving Auckland’s port might make sense – someday. But I do wonder about some of the talk of moving Auckland’s port to put in a waterfront stadium, or museum, or other large, iconic, and expensive facility. Read more
The cogs of government and regulation can grind slowly. And, sometimes, that can be for the best. Read more
Back in 1968, economist Friedrich Hayek wrote that competition is a discovery procedure. Some information about the world simply would not exist without the process of market competition that discovers it. Read more
Can market forces help get the chores done? Chief Economist Dr Eric Crampton discusses the economics of parenting with Barry Crump on the Radio New Zealand Nights programme. Read more
Last week, Labour finally began delivering on its urban growth agenda. Housing affordability was one of the two main themes of the 2017 election. Read more
Following the Government's announcement of the $12 billion for infrastructure, Dr Eric Crampton discusses on Radio New Zealand about the need to enable other ways of financing infrastructure on a stable basis rather than constantly relying on infrastructure deficits hitting near-crisis levels.
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There was something in the original plans for the post-earthquake Christchurch downtown rebuild that never really made much sense. Well, there were a lot of things that never made any sense, both in the plans and in practice, and that's why a lot of business fled to the suburbs. Read more
One of the underappreciated joys of parenthood is lying to your children. Children are full of questions. Read more