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
On Newstalk ZB, Eric Crampton discusses our latest report, Recipe for disaster. He says New Zealand still hasn't fixed the policy problems that slowed Christchurch's rebuild and remains under-prepared for another big quake. Read more
Eric Crampton features on 1News discussing his new report, Recipe for Disaster, and the lessons that the government can learn from the response to the Christchurch earthquakes.
Read Recipe for Disaster here: http://bit.ly/2ncQJGz Read more
The season for gathering the family around the television for uplifting Christmas movies is rapidly approaching. But be a little careful out there. Read more
A new survey shows New Zealanders are very optimistic about 2018. The Roy Morgan survey shows 53% of New Zealanders think it will be better than 2017 and that compares with Australia where just 31% think next year will be be an improvement on this one. Read more
Careful economics and careful carpentry have one thing in common. Building things level is not easy when the floor is a bit crooked. Read more
New Zealand has always had to run a little faster than everyone else just to keep up. Too small to rely on its own internal markets, and too distant to profit from tight integration with larger neighbours, New Zealand has had to compete by being nimble. Read more
Which moves faster: technology, or the regulation that tries to keep up with it? New Zealand’s ability to adapt to new technology depends on whether our regulations can keep pace. Read more
The Challenge. Which moves faster: technology, or the regulation that tries to keep up with it? Read more
Dr Eric Crampton introduces his latest report, Analog Regulation, Digital World. Read more
On RadioLIVE, Dr Eric Crampton discusses his latest report Analog Regulation, Digital Regulation. He explains how New Zealand is doing on regulating for digital innovation and opportunity, and how we can all work together to make things better. Read more
National’s supporters on the right could have been forgiven for expecting a lot after the 2008 election. After three terms of Helen Clark’s Labour government, and National’s opposition to Labour’s policies, they had a right to. Read more
The new government has suggested a $20 minimum wage in 2021, is the same as a $17.50 minimum wage today. Eric Crampton tells Mike Hosking there are already good numbers from MBIE around the effects of minimum wage increases. Read more
The new government will follow Labour's policies with immigration, the coalition agreement with NZ First has revealed. The document made public yesterday briefly outlined how the parties together would 'ensure work visas issued reflect genuine skills shortages.' There's also a promise to take 'serious action on migrant exploitation,' but didn't mention any specific number cuts, or what visa categories such cuts would come from. Read more
If no person’s life, liberty or property are safe while Parliament is in session, what’s the rush to have a new government? As I write this column, no coalition has been struck. Read more
When mathematician Stanislaw Ulam challenged Paul Samuelson to point to anything in economics that was both universally true and non-obvious, Samuelson pointed to David Ricardo’s principle of comparative advantage: Even the least productive countries still benefit from trade. Richard Thaler’s Nobel Prize is richly deserved for several substantive contributions in behavioural economics. Read more