Eric is the Chief Economist at The New Zealand Initiative. With the Initiative, he has worked in policy areas ranging from freshwater management to policy for earthquake preparedness, and from local government to technology policy. He has recently focused on policy related to Covid-19 response. He served as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Department of Economics & Finance at the University of Canterbury from 2003 through 2014.
Eric’s columns and commentary appear regularly in New Zealand’s major media outlets, as well as on his blog, Offsetting Behaviour. He can also be found on Twitter at @ericcrampton.
Phone: +64 4 499 0790
Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence. Even still, it is hard to see how policy could be less friendly to entry by grocers like Aldi or Lidl if it were intentional. Read more
NZ Initiative’s Eric Crampton chats with Sean Plunket about the OCR increase.
Read more
Eric Crampton talks to Kate Hawkesby on Newstalk ZB - Early Edition about the recent increase of the Official Cash Rate (OCR) from 3.5 percent to 4.25 percent. Read more
Wellington (Wednesday, 23 November 2022) – In the leadup to today’s Official Cash Rate decision, New Zealand’s economists warn that inflation expectations are unhinged and that government deficits are worsening the problem. They also remind us that New Zealand cannot maintain current employment levels by accepting high inflation rates. Read more
Last week, the government released the first parts of its proposed overhaul of the resource management system. If passed into law, the Natural and Built Environment Bill will, over a transition period, replace the Resource Management Act. Read more
New Zealand's immigration system is cracking under pressure. A lack of staff, a shambolic IT system, and new government policies that bamboozle applicants are creating unnecessary stress for migrants, and long delays around simple work visa applications that once made their way through the system with ease are causing issues for employers. Read more
The main legislation for the government’s proposed reform of the Resource Management System has over 850 sections and was released only three days ago. Critical parts of the framework are still missing. Read more
At about three in the morning, three days after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, our family got into the car. Power and water had been out at our South New Brighton home since Tuesday’s earthquake. Read more
Victoria University's Associate Professor Martien Lubberink specialises in banking regulation. In Newsroom, Prof Lubberink warns of unintended consequences of setting extra taxes on current bank profits. Read more
Wellington (Wednesday, 9 November 2022) – There are no silver bullets for ending the regulatory mess that makes housing hard to build, but there may be silver buckshot. A Member’s Bill from ACT’s Brooke van Velden proposes sharing half of the GST on new housing with councils where new housing is built. Read more
Nowhere in New Zealand is as landlocked as the southern Manitoba farm where I grew up. Reaching the ocean, by road, required at least 24 hours of non-stop driving. Read more
In a classic Simpsons episode, the gang went out looking for the Loch Ness Monster. Professor Frink turned on his scanning scope. Read more
If you want to know the effects of small changes to tax rates or tax thresholds on government revenue, Treasury provides a handy calculator. But the calculator breaks if you ask it to tell you the effects of inflation on tax revenues since April 2021, when the new 39% tax rate came in. Read more
The Platform's Sean Plunket interviewed Eric Crampton on New Zealand's tax system. He comments on the latest in a long line of dodgy Oxfam reports on inequality. Read more
If someone told you that America’s tax system is light-years ahead of either Sweden or New Zealand’s in reducing inequality, you’d be right to think they’re either misguided or lying to you. So how the heck did Oxfam manage to create a ranking of tax system fairness that put the US 10th best in the world, the UK 24th, Sweden 104th, and New Zealand 136th? Read more