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
The government allocated $50 billion in Budget 2020 to deal with the pandemic - on top of the $12.1 billion already allocated. We were going to spend what was needed for a strong public health response. Read more
Eric Crampton talks to Anna Thomas on Radio NZ Nights about heritage preservation, regulations and funding.
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Governments and councils have two basic levers for achieving policy objectives. They can spend money on programmes aimed at providing the desired outcome. Read more
Japan’s post Second World War economic growth was astonishing. Despite widespread devastation, Japan produced an economic miracle. Read more
When the government set a binding cap on New Zealand’s net emissions through the Emissions Trading Scheme, it also set a second cap – on prices. The hope was that that second cap would not really be needed, but it looks like it might become relevant rather sooner than anyone expected. Read more
Matt Burgess talks to Eric Crampton about the fiscal risks of a rapidly rising ETS price. 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
Last year’s cannabis referendum failed by a 51% to 49% margin. Drug reform advocates have since suggested decriminalising drug possession as alternative. Read more
The government faces increasing debt levels if it does not get the cost of an aging population under control. Eric Crampton talks to Wallace Chapman on Radio NZ - The Panel about Treasury's projections and whether the superannuation age should be raised. Read more
By the end of the year, all going well, everyone in New Zealand who wants to be vaccinated against Covid-19 will be vaccinated against Covid-19. All of the developed world barring Australia is rolling out vaccination more quickly than New Zealand. Read more
Oliver Hartwich and Eric Crampton talk to Nelson-based immigration advisor Carsten Hallwass about New Zealand’s immigration settings and the effect of Covid-19. 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
Last week’s post-Covid fiscal and monetary policy workshop, hosted jointly by the Reserve Bank and Treasury, seemed designed to warm the policy economics community to higher levels of public debt. While low interest rates mean investment projects that might not normally make the grade can now stack up, stacking up debt builds its own fragility. Read more
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
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