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
Dr Eric Crampton talked to Sean Plunket on The Platform about the accuracy of alcohol and meth harm estimates. Watch below. Read more
Dr Eric Crampton talks to Sean Plunket on The Platform to break down the 2024 Budget. Watch below. Read more
And so, the state advances. Thirteen steps forward, four steps back, then onward again. Read more
It would be ludicrous to describe Grant Robertson’s 2019 Wellbeing Budget as austere. Core government spending rose from around $27.50 of every $100 in economic activity to about $29 – a substantial increase. Read more
Dr Eric Crampton was interviewed on 1News on Budget Day about what he would like to see happen in the Budget. “What I would like to see today is a very clear path to get spending down to pre-Covid levels. Read more
American libertarian author and satirist P.J. O’Rourke used to joke that “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” The problem really is one of trust. Read more
Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister for most of 1968 through 1984, and father of the current Canadian Prime Minister, had a wonderful quip about being neighbours with the United States. In a 1969 state visit with President Nixon in Washington, Trudeau said, “Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. Read more
Even today’s sharpest critics of economics should give economists credit for two substantial wins for liberalism over the past couple of centuries. In 1849, Thomas Carlyle called economics ‘the Dismal Science.” The name stuck, but most people using the term have forgotten why Carlyle gave us that name. Read more
They say that denial is the first stage of grief and that overcoming it matters if you want anything to get better. There has been an awful lot of denial of the serious fiscal problem that the government must start addressing in May’s budget. Read more
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
