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
This week, a strong majority of Australian economists came out in support of a policy measure to encourage electric vehicle adoption on their side of the Tasman. But they did not support subsidies for electric vehicles. Read more
The vehicle feebate scheme announced Sunday might result in more electric vehicles, but it cannot affect net carbon emissions. Transport is covered by the Emissions Trading Scheme’s binding cap on net emissions. Read more
The practicalities of the Government’s new ‘feebate’ scheme are still unclear, as the Financial Services Federation’s Lyn McMorran explains in a conversation with Eric Crampton, Matt Burgess and Oliver Hartwich. If you would like to listen to our latest podcasts, please subscribe to The New Zealand Initiative podcast on iTunes, Spotify or The Podcast App. Read more
Matt Burgess, Eric Crampton, Oliver Hartwich and Bryce Wilkinson discuss the Government’s new feebate scheme. Will it help to cut emissions? Read more
A movie about the Prime Minister’s response to the Christchurch mosque attacks looks less likely by the day. That is for the best. Read more
Transport Minister Michael Wood has hinted that congestion charging could be made available to local councils. Dr Eric Crampton discusses congestion charging with Wallace Chapman on Radio New Zealand - The Panel. Read more
Anyone who’s gone through strategic planning reviews at places of business under financial distress knows they’re often a prelude to redundancies. Too often, reviews look to see what might be cut, and what can be made of what is left, rather than building toward new opportunities. Read more
The New Zealand government’s approach to border management, contrary to popular belief, is not terrified of risk. It is far worse than that. Read more
How long will the America's Cup stay in New Zealand ? Team NZ is currently in exclusive negotiations with the government and Auckland Council to host the next event. Read more
Eric Crampton talks to Jesse Mulligan on Radio NZ about the next steps for New Zealand in a Covid-19 world. Read more
Read our submission to the Ministry of Health on the Proposals for a Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan. The Initiative has, over the past several years, undertaken research into tobacco harm reduction policies because of our concern for the inequities caused by the existing tobacco control regime. Read more
Emissions pricing and congestion pricing have a lot in common. The economics of both are straightforward. Read more
Dr Eric Crampton chatted to Professor Josh Gans from the University of Toronto on the global Covid-19 pandemic response. They discuss the importance of coming up with effective strategies to get the covid-19 vaccinations rolled out as quickly as possible and move onto the next conversation of how to reopen borders. Read more
The biggest risk to New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme isn’t technical issues in how the scheme is run or in its accounting. The biggest risk instead is politics. Read more
As economics Nobel laureate Paul Krugman once put it, “Productivity isn’t everything, but, in the long run, it is almost everything.” Which makes you wonder what Krugman would think of yesterday’s Budget. Hidden behind headlines of benefit increases, spending initiatives and a new unemployment insurance scheme lies a worrying small detail. Read more