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
James Shaw’s State of the Planet speech called for a new economic model – sustainability economics – to meet environmental and equity challenges ahead. While his call comes from the left, it reminded me of earlier criticisms of mainstream economics from the right. Read more
It’s too easy to take things for granted. In Monty Python’s classic Life of Brian, John Cleese’s Reg asked what the hated Romans had ever done for the people of Judea – and was rather annoyed to hear a long list of things like medicine, sanitation, education, wine, irrigation and more. Read more
New research out of NZIER, and released under the Official Information Act, says the sugar tax won't work. The findings mirror what we concluded in our 2016 report, The Health of the State. Read more
On his regular Radio New Zealand Nights chat, Eric Crampton talks through the findings of his latest report Recipe for Disaster. Read more
On February 3, the timer counting down Labour’s first hundred days will pop. There’s been a lot of urgency about pushing through important parts of Labour’s election manifesto before that hundred-day timer runs out. Read more
Kiwis know a lot about earthquake preparedness. We know that we have to store enough water and supplies to last for an extended period. Read more
Our new report, Recipe for disaster: Building policy on shaky ground says New Zealand is still under-prepared for the next big earthquake. Authors Bryce Wilkinson and Eric Crampton have reviewed the policy response to the Canterbury earthquakes. Read more
On Newstalk ZB, Eric Crampton discusses our latest report, Recipe for disaster. He says New Zealand still hasn't fixed the policy problems that slowed Christchurch's rebuild and remains under-prepared for another big quake. Read more
Eric Crampton features on 1News discussing his new report, Recipe for Disaster, and the lessons that the government can learn from the response to the Christchurch earthquakes.
Read Recipe for Disaster here: http://bit.ly/2ncQJGz Read more
The season for gathering the family around the television for uplifting Christmas movies is rapidly approaching. But be a little careful out there. Read more
A new survey shows New Zealanders are very optimistic about 2018. The Roy Morgan survey shows 53% of New Zealanders think it will be better than 2017 and that compares with Australia where just 31% think next year will be be an improvement on this one. Read more
Careful economics and careful carpentry have one thing in common. Building things level is not easy when the floor is a bit crooked. Read more
New Zealand has always had to run a little faster than everyone else just to keep up. Too small to rely on its own internal markets, and too distant to profit from tight integration with larger neighbours, New Zealand has had to compete by being nimble. Read more
Which moves faster: technology, or the regulation that tries to keep up with it? New Zealand’s ability to adapt to new technology depends on whether our regulations can keep pace. Read more
The Challenge. Which moves faster: technology, or the regulation that tries to keep up with it? Read more