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
Parliament faces tighter constraints when it wants to spend money than when it wishes to regulate. The Regulatory Standards Bill would set the two on slightly more equal footing. Read more
In this second episode of their three-part series on New Zealand's housing crisis, Eric Crampton continues the discussion with Stu Donovan and Benno Blaschke, exploring what competitive urban land markets could look like. Building on their previous exploration of how New Zealand's housing became dysfunctional, they now examine the ideal alternative to the current system, detailing how a more responsive urban environment could address the structural issues discussed in Part 1. Read more
Dr Eric Crampton and Dr Bryce Wilkinson presented a submission to the Finance and Expenditure Committee on day four of hearings into the Regulatory Standards Bill, supporting the legislation while proposing nine recommendations to improve regulatory accountability and transparency. The submission emphasised the bill's potential to provide greater scrutiny of regulations, address economic challenges like housing affordability and productivity, and create a mechanism for Parliament to better understand the implications of proposed legislation. Read more
In this episode, Eric Crampton talks to Benno Blaschke and Stu Donovan (Senior Fellow at Motu) about the complex history of New Zealand's housing crisis, exploring the first part of a three-part series on housing dysfunction. They delve into the underlying causes of housing unaffordability, exploring how urban planning policies, council incentives, and infrastructure constraints have contributed to limited housing supply in major cities like Auckland. Read more
It is legal to buy books. Obviously. Read more
The New Zealand Association of Economists’ annual conference is unlike other academic conferences and better for it. The Association’s membership spans academics, officials, consultants and a few think-tankers. Read more
Parliament is supreme but it is not infallible. Governments often propose policies that are wrong in principle. Read more
Late night ‘situation monitoring’ on Twitter when Israel and America are bombing Iranian nuclear weapons facilities is not ideal for a good night’s sleep. Possible outcomes seemed to range from a happy and peaceful shift to a more liberal Iranian government, through to serious regional or broader war with a nuclear-armed Iran. Read more
Imagine that you owned a vacant piece of land. You were trying to decide whether to put solar panels on it to generate electricity or to plant trees on it to sequester carbon and earn carbon credits. Read more
There are already too many reasons for international supermarket chains to decide our small set of islands far from everywhere are not worth bothering about. Adding one more seems bad if government has prioritised retail grocery competition. Read more
We can learn a lot from newspapers’ Letters to the Editor pages. This week, I had a column in the Stuff newspapers on the Initiative’s proposed fast-track for new supermarkets. Read more
The United States has the world’s best universities. At least for now. Read more
In this episode, Eric talks to Tom Mungham, the former Chief Executive Officer and Registrar of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, about gambling regulation. Drawing from Ontario's successful experience with online gambling regulation, they explore how New Zealand can learn from and adapt international best practices to create a robust, consumer-friendly regulatory framework that protects both players and market interests. Read more
There’s an old joke about economists walking past a $20 note on the sidewalk. One says to the other, “If that note were real, someone would have picked it up already.” It could be that the $20 note was a photocopied counterfeit with advertising on the other side. Read more
Dr Eric Crampton talked to Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB about The New Zealand Initiative's blueprint for addressing supermarket competition in New Zealand. The Initiative proposes a five-year fast-track planning framework to enable new international grocery retailers to enter the market, addressing regulatory barriers that currently make it challenging for new supermarket operators to establish themselves. Read more