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
It was during the discussions of measuring spiritual capital that the ghost of Sir John James Cowperthwaite hovered near. The shade whispered in my ear, “When I was Financial Secretary of Hong Kong, I refused to collect economic statistics for London. Read more
Community sponsorship helps Canada accept far more refugees than the government’s quota could accommodate on its own. And it looks promising for New Zealand as well. Read more
Desperate to turn away from trivial controversies here in New Zealand about Santa’s true gender, I looked to the British press and found The Times and The Telegraph reporting on claims of racism in J.R.R. Tolkien’s depiction of orcs in The Lord of the Rings. Read more
The trouble isn’t so much the things we don’t know, as the old aphorism goes, but rather the things we know that aren’t so. Simply not knowing things can often be fixed. Read more
Unless we are good friends, my picking the restaurant when you are paying the bill can be a recipe for trouble. Central and local government are not always the best of friends. Read more
The Labour-Green coalition agreement promised a referendum on the personal use of cannabis at or before the next election. The next election must be held by 21 November 2020. Read more
Winston Peters’ tax credit for pretty horses fights the wrong battle when it comes to improving New Zealand’s bloodstock. New Zealand has no obvious problem with ugly horses. Read more
New Zealand’s climate change policy could stand to be just a little more vanilla. When Cyclone Enawo hit Africa’s east coast in 2017, it wiped out about 16% of the world’s vanilla production. Read more
On his regular Radio New Zealand Nights chat, Eric Crampton is taking a look at our fresh water. Read more
Supporting a regulated market for cannabis hardly requires you to think cannabis is a good thing. It rather recognises that illegal markets are risky with their own harms, and that American states that have liberalised have generally seen good outcomes. Read more
It is hard to make good rules in a hurry. And the period after an earthquake – or any natural disaster – is the worst time for setting new building codes, new city plans, or new rules for urgent building demolition. Read more
The government’s planning changes to freshwater management. Earlier this month, the government released consultation documents outlining its intended approach to improving freshwater quality. Read more
The past fortnight’s shenanigans have raised calls for campaign finance reform. But campaign finance regulation is like squeezing a balloon. Read more
The Tax Working Group’s high-level advice is absolutely correct: The government should simplify the alcohol excise structure, put tobacco excise increases on hold, and not proceed with any sugar taxes until it figures out what it is trying to achieve. This sound advice relies on a rather reasonable summary of the issues produced by the Tax Working Group’s secretariat. Read more
Following Canada's recent decision to legalise cannabis for recreational use, Dr. Eric Crampton discusses how this might work in New Zealand. Listen to his interview on Newstalk ZB below:
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