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
For some pundits, elections are magical times in which pundits’ favourite policy hobby-horses transform into the election-winning platform for any party that might listen. I will recommend something a little different for Labour’s incoming leader. Read more
The announcement of a new way of funding urban infrastructure is a bit like announcing a way of clearing that first big slip on the road from Kaikoura to Blenheim. It’s an important and necessary start but it is only a start. Read more
Peter Jackson took a few liberties with Tolkien’s text for the Lord of the Rings films. Most of them, I didn’t like. But one addition I rather liked came at the start. Read more
On his regular Radio New Zealand Nights chat, Dr Eric Crampton discusses the upcoming election and the housing affordability crisis.
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If your main exposure to economics is hearing bank economists talk on morning radio, you might not have the most accurate picture of what economists do. Trying to guess what interest rates might do, or telling stories about the latest moves in the stock market, are not really what economics is about. Read more
The New Zealand Initiative's Chief Economist, Dr Eric Crampton, gives us his review of John Raffensperger and Mark Milke's book "Smart markets for Water Resources". Dr Crampton helped to launch this book at the University of Canterbury on Tuesday 18 July. Read more
The Project covered The Opportunities Party announcement of providing a UBI for 18-23 year olds. The Initiative's Chief Economist Dr Eric Crampton contributed to the debate. Read more
The Commerce Commission now has more powers to investigate competition issues in any area where it thinks there might be a problem. In this week’s National Business Review, the Initiative’s Chair, Roger Partridge, argues this was a bad idea. Read more
New research from a Roy Morgan poll looks into the concerns of Kiwi voters ahead of September's election - and it's housing affordability and inequality. Our Chief Economist Dr Eric Crampton and author Max Rashbrooke were on RadioLive to discuss what can be done to address these issues. Read more
This week, members of the Law and Economics Association were treated to dinner and a show. Or something close to it. Read more
In Damon Knight’s classic science-fiction short story, helpful aliens provide Earth with unlimited energy and plenty of food. The aliens even have a manual titled, “How to Serve Man.” It all seems too good to be true – until a translator works out the book’s first paragraph and sees it is not your traditional alien butler’s training guide. Read more
Last week brought some hope that this year’s election would have a stronger policy focus. The OECD released its report on the state of the New Zealand, and the moves necessary to improve outcomes in education, productivity and economic growth. Read more
Tenacity is normally a virtue. But when that tenacity is in pursuit of the kind of thing that has gotten you in trouble before, it is just a bit less virtuous. Read more
The accommodation supplement is supposed to make housing more affordable for low income tenants. But whether it can really do that job depends a lot on market conditions. Read more
You do not need prices in a land of plenty. Prices are a wonderful way of coordinating competing demands on scarce resources. Read more