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
Dr Eric Crampton discusses his latest Interest.co.nz column on employing alternative facts with Larry Williams on Newstalk ZB.
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The Commerce Commission is nothing if not clever. While it kept everyone busy watching for its rulings on media mergers, it quietly cornered the market on competition policy conferences. Read more
Dr Eric Crampton has his regular spot on Radio New Zealand Nights. In this segment he discusses immigration in New Zealand. Read more
I may risk creating the impression that I enjoy judicial euphemisms. For the past few years, police have been getting stroppy about alcohol licences. This was most obvious when Parliament had to legislate around police obstructionism to allow bars to stay open to screen the Rugby World Cup in 2015. Read more
Nobody yet knows the new pay equity regime’s administrative cost. But we have a pretty good estimate of the costs of the pay equity settlement for the aged care sector: about two billion dollars. Read more
It is too easy to take prices for granted – in part because nobody invented them. If somebody had invented prices as a way of making sure that goods, services, capital and workers wind up, for the most part, getting to the places where they are most needed, that hero would have commemorative statues everywhere. Read more
Businesses that fail as badly as government does would go bankrupt. But when government screws up, it gets more power instead. Read more
New Zealand may never have a better chance of drawing top talent away from America. This week's changes to skilled migrant requirements will help but not as much as they should. Read more
You may be in a spot of trouble if you ever really wind up having to kill two birds with the throw of one stone. It is a tricky shot to pull off. Read more
Economist Alex Tabarrok says prices are a signal wrapped in an incentive. Prices tell us about relative scarcity and provide an incentive to conserve on scarce things. Read more
I’m a fan of classic episodes of The Simpsons. In Cape Feare, Sideshow Bob sneaks a ride under the Simpsons’ car, with murderous intent. Read more
Following the release of the Productivity Commission's report, New Models of Tertiary Education, our Head of Research Dr Eric Crampton spoke to Tim Fookes on Newstalk ZB about why we support the report and why we think tertiary education, and the student loan scheme, are in need of a shake-up.
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Dr Eric Crampton speaks to Larry Williams on Newstalk ZB about the Productivity Commission's new tertiary education report - and why we welcomed the report and their comments on our interest-free student loan scheme.
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If you want to know the real value of recreational fishing, the last place you should look is inside an economic impact assessment. People often make fun of economists for knowing the costs of everything and the value of nothing, but when it comes to economic impact assessments, it’s even worse. Read more
One decent policy rule is never to make the perfect the enemy of the good, but to always keep the perfect in mind anyway. But sometimes there really is the chance to aim for the perfect. Read more