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
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
Mike Hosking from Newstalk ZB reviews Eric Crampton's recent Dominion Post article about excessive government. Read more
Eric Crampton, Chief Economist from The New Zealand Initiative speaks with Sean Plunket on if the NZ Government needs to be checked.
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Joseph Heller invented one of literature’s better paradoxes. In his classic World War II novel, Catch-22, only a madman would be willing to fly nearly suicidal missions. Read more
This submission on the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill is made by the New Zealand Initiative and the Reason Foundation, a non-profit U.S.-based think-tank. The Reason Foundation’s nonpartisan public policy research promotes choice, competition, and a dynamic market economy as the foundation for human dignity and progress. Read more
A dinner game Gather round, children. I have a sad fable to tell. Read more
Eric Crampton discusses with Heather Du Plessis-Allan on Newstalk ZB the Auckland Council's Transport Emissions Reduction Pathway. Read more
A friend who worked in one of the Ministries years ago called it “Hiding the cheese”. It’s a fun game for the Ministries, hiding the cheese. Read more
In Frank Hebert’s classic Dune series, the Bene Gesserit sisterhood’s supernatural abilities extended only so far. There was a place where their powers could not see – a place that repelled and terrified them. Read more
In Douglas Adams’s classic Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, Wonko the Sane realised that the world had gone mad. He had seen the instructions on the side of a packet of toothpicks. Read more
We all know the old joke that an economist would look for his keys under a lamp post not because that’s where he’d dropped them, but because that’s where the light is. But sometimes new lamp posts add the necessary extra bit of illumination. Read more
Today could see another historic milestone for the New Zealand economy. Unemployment is expected to fall from its current level of 3.2 percent, which is already the lowest since records began. Read more