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
Classic-era Simpsons episodes may not have had the solutions to all of life’s problems, but they did get a few things right. Be sceptical of monorail salesmen. Read more
A Bargain Chemist in Upper Hutt has been unable to dispense prescriptions since it opened in 2022. Its website simply notes “Prescriptions not currently available”. Read more
Captain Williard’s response to Colonel Kurtz’s question about his methods, in Apocalypse Now, is among the most classic lines in cinema. Kurtz, who had clearly gone mad, asked Willard whether Willard saw Kurtz’s methods as unsound. Read more
Our Chief Economist Dr Eric Crampton talk to Jack Tame on Q + A about the ETS and the complexities of carbon pricing, emissions reduction strategies, and the balancing act between environmental and economic considerations in New Zealand's climate policy.
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In this episode, Eric Crampton and Sarah Hogan, Deputy Chief Executive at NZIER, discuss a new report estimating the social costs of alcohol in New Zealand at $9 billion, with a focus on how such figures are calculated and used in policymaking. They explore the challenges of accurately attributing costs to alcohol, debate the effectiveness of targeted interventions versus broad policies, and emphasize the importance of addressing first-order problems like fetal alcohol spectrum disorder while ensuring cost-effective approaches to reducing alcohol-related harms. Related links: Eric’s summary of the OIAs on the Stage One review of the Alcohol Levy The OIA correspondence for the Stage One review OIA for early drafts of the NZIER alcohol cost study, request of Dylan Firth, Brewers Association To listen to our latest podcasts, please subscribe to The New Zealand Initiative podcast on iTunes, Spotify or The Podcast App. Read more
Canada’s devolution of health services to First Nations provides a strikingly different way of thinking about localism, according to Dr Eric Crampton, Chief Economist with the New Zealand Initiative. “Canada’s central government has long provided, under treaty, a ‘medicine chest’ of funded services to First Nations peoples. Read more
Wellington (Wednesday, 14 August 2024) - Canada’s devolution of health services to First Nations provides a strikingly different way of thinking about localism, according to Dr Eric Crampton, Chief Economist with The New Zealand Initiative. “Canada’s central government has long provided, under treaty, a ‘medicine chest’ of funded services to First Nations peoples. Read more
New Zealand has one of the world’s more centralised governments. Most taxation, regulation, and spending happen at the central government level. Read more
Even if Labour had not banned offshore oil and gas exploration in 2018, it seems unlikely that exploration since then would have been delivering gas today. Gas reserves would have had to be discovered, then permits and equipment for drilling secured. Read more
Dr Eric Crampton sat down with Mark Leishman, Stephen Franks and Verity Johnson on RNZ's show The Panel. Eric discusses the results of a major three-year trial of Universal Basic Income (UBI) in the United States, exploring its effects on work, health, and well-being, while considering the broader implications and challenges of implementing such a system on a national scale. Read more
In 1968, ecologist Garrett Hardin argued that the “Tragedy of the Commons” is commonplace. If you wanted to deliberately engineer a commons problem, the management of the Conservation Estate would make for a pretty decent guidebook. Read more
It’s hard not to marvel at Silicon Valley’s technological innovations. But I’m dumbfounded by the social science experiment they’ve been working on. Read more
The government’s draft Emissions Budget gets a few important things right. It abandons measures like subsidies for electric vehicles that, perhaps counterintuitively, cannot reduce net national emissions. Read more
Wellington (Wednesday, 17 July 2024) - The New Zealand Initiative today welcomed the government’s intention, stated in the Draft Emissions Reduction Plan, to rely on the Emissions Trading Scheme to achieve the Zero Carbon Act’s goal of net zero emissions from 2050. But it also urged measures that would strengthen the ETS. Read more
Policy problems should be dealt with by the level and part of government best placed to deal with them. Good public policy should recognise subsidiarity. Read more