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
History often helps put current controversies in context. In 1968, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Ira Glasser defended racist Alabama Governor George Wallace’s right to speak at a city-owned stadium in New York. Read more
In this episode, Eric Crampton talks to Frederico Fernández, Founder and CEO of We Are Innovation, about their recent global index ranking countries' policies on safer nicotine alternatives. They explore how allowing access to options like vaping, snus and heated tobacco can drive down smoking rates more effectively than traditional tobacco control measures alone. Read more
For a few months after last year’s elections, Wellington consultancies seemed to be scrambling to publish reports on city deals. National’s coalition agreement with ACT promised long-term city deals for funding and financing infrastructure but was short on details. Read more
Both the prior Labour government and the current National-led coalition have wanted to deliver more affordable housing. But getting there is like trying to traverse an overgrown forest path. Read more
There’s a weird art to commissioned cost-benefit assessments. Even when it seems like a report’s funder really wanted a particular result and even if the final number seems absurd, the report can still be valuable. Read more
In this episode, Eric and Nick talk to Peter Nunns and Graham Campbell from New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga. They discuss council debt and infrastructure funding and financing. Read more
Adam Smith warned that meetings of people of the same trade quickly turn into conspiracies against the public or contrivances to raise prices. He neglected to mention the benefits of meetings of people from vastly different trades. Read more
The way the government tries to protect us against earthquake risks, and to protect heritage buildings against change, share a common problem. Government agencies have a very difficult time generating the information necessary for making good decisions in both cases. Read more
American supply-side conservatives got one big thing right two decades ago, but they got a bigger thing wrong. And it’s relevant to current debates about our Coalition Government’s proposed tax cuts. Read more
Dr Eric Crampt on talks to Corin Dann on RNZ about the need for state spending to reduce to pre-Covid levels. Listen below. Read more
We all have our strange little hobbies. I keep an eye out for mentions of a shonky old estimate on the social cost of alcohol. Read more
Listen to Dr Eric Crampton discuss the Government's tax needs and plans:
Eric Crampton Newstalk ZB Read more
It isn’t that there are never $20 notes lying on the footpath, it’s that when markets are working well, there are strong incentives to find and pick them up. A $20 note shouldn’t have to wait very long before being grabbed. Read more
Initiative Chief Economist Eric Crampton Talks Tax Cuts & Uber vs Taxis with Sean Plunket.
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The Sen̓áḵw development near downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, won’t quite be a city within the city. But it will be close. Read more