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
New Zealand has new planning laws. They passed in September and replace the Resource Management Act. Read more
Our Chief Economist Dr Eric Crampton joined a panel of economists and commentators, Hilmarie Schulze (BERL), Max Rashbrooke, and VUW Students' Association president Aiden Donaghue, chaired by Infometrics' Brad Olsen, for Victoria University of Wellington's Aotearoa Votes election series, discussing what's working and not working in New Zealand's economy. Read more
If Labour forms government after the election, it will forgive a portion of some student loans. The policy announced on Sunday aims to leave graduates “with less debt, more of their income in their pocket, and a better chance to build their lives here in New Zealand.” The policy will certainly reduce the outstanding student loan balances of eligible borrowers. Read more
The Commerce Act forbids anticompetitive conduct. There are established processes for proving that commercial conduct is unlawful, with penalties and remedies that follow. Read more
In this episode, Oliver talks with Eric Crampton, chief economist at the New Zealand Initiative, about his new paper "Breaking up the supermarkets is hard to do... and a bad idea", which finds the promised savings rest on an untested assumption about how Foodstuffs prices its supermarket banners. Read more
Wellington (Tuesday, 22 September 2026) – National wants to pass a law forcing Foodstuffs to split in two if the Commerce Commission signs off. PAK'nSAVEs and New Worlds would become members of separate nationwide co-operatives. Read more
National wants to pass a law forcing Foodstuffs to split in two if the Commerce Commission signs off. PAK'nSAVEs and New Worlds would become members of separate nationwide co-operatives. Read more
ur Chief Economist Eric Crampton joined Sean Plunket on The Platform to discuss National's election-year proposal to split Foodstuffs' Pack'n Save operations from its New World and Foursquare banners. Eric suggested the policy looks like a populist response to cost-of-living polling pressure rather than considered reform, and warned the accompanying cost-benefit analysis rests on a shaky assumption. Read more
Our Chief Economist Eric Crampton joined philosopher Peter Boghossian, in a conversation produced with the Free Speech Union, to discuss immigration policy, housing affordability, and public health taxes. Eric argued New Zealand's points-based immigration system works precisely because it pairs openness with a genuine willingness to deport those who break the rules, pointed to zoning reform as the key driver behind Auckland's improved housing affordability, and made the case against "sin taxes" as a tool for shaping health behaviour. Read more
Our Chief Economist Eric Crampton joined Sean Plunket on The Platform to unpack New Zealand First's policy to bar non-citizens from receiving superannuation. Eric pushed back on the claim that New Zealand is an outlier internationally, noting that superannuation-style pensions in Canada, the UK, and across much of Europe are typically based on residency rather than citizenship, much like New Zealand's own system, which already requires 10 to 20 years of residence depending on birth year. Read more
Over the past fortnight, both ACT and New Zealand First announced policies targeted at those who live in New Zealand as permanent residents rather than as citizens. In both cases, the announcements aimed to push permanent residents to take up citizenship, to accept a sharply degraded experience living here, or to leave. Read more
There was a line that made the rounds when Trump first campaigned to be President: his promises should be taken seriously but not literally. Last week, New Zealand First promised that, from 2029, only citizens would be able to collect superannuation. Read more
The four months before an election aren’t great for those who care about good policy. Politicians’ competence at other times is questionable. Read more
Following the government's decision to delay a planned fuel excise increase until 2028, our Chief Economist Eric Crampton joined Sean Plunket on The Platform to explain why funding roads this way is bad policy. Eric traced how New Zealand's road funding has drifted from a disciplined, user-pays model, where road user charges and fuel excise funded maintenance first, with taxpayer money reserved for tightly-vetted new capacity, to one where general taxpayer top-ups have become routine and cost-benefit standards have slipped. Read more
For practical purposes, not emitting a tonne of carbon dioxide is equivalent to pulling a tonne of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and securely sequestering it, so long as the accounting is sound. The Zero Carbon Act consequently requires net zero for greenhouse gases other than biogenic methane. Read more