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 a Valentine's Day themed show, Head of Research Dr Eric Crampton, discusses the economics of marriage and dating on Radio New Zealand's 'Nights' programme.
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National’s 2010 budget provided substantial tax cuts. But it also implemented an important tax switch at the same time. Read more
President Donald Trump's travel ban on the citizens of seven muslim-majority countries has dominated headlines around the globe over the past few weeks. Canadian-born economist, and Head of Research at The new Zealand Initiative Eric Crampton, Negar Partow - a senior lecturer at Massey University's Centre for Defence and Security Studies, and Paul Buchanan - a former intelligence analyst for the US government and regular commentator on international affairs join Wallace to discuss the likely international implications of the Trump presidency. Read more
Every American election brings howls of outrage from supporters of the losing side. It’s pretty common to hear about all the people who will move to Canada, or to New Zealand, because of how awful the winning candidate is. Read more
A sufficiently advanced incompetence in a president is indistinguishable from malice. Donald Trump has issued an Executive Order blocking legal American residents, who happen to have been born in a small set of Middle Eastern countries, from returning home. Read more
Peter Thiel is a world-leading tech investor and a fascinating thinker. Of course NZ was right to make him a citizen. Read more
Want to rail against the Global 1% rich-listers? Be a bit careful: if you own a house in Auckland, mortgage-free, you could easily be on that list. Read more
John MacDonald talks with Dr Eric Crampton, head of research at The New Zealand Initiative, on the growing gap between rich and poor in New Zealand. This is after it was revealed that New Zealand's two richest men have more money than 30% of the NZ population. Read more
Christmas is getting better. Maybe it’s because Kiwis are getting better at keeping New Year's resolutions. Read more
Now that Steven Joyce is to be given the Finance Minister reins, it is worth looking forward to what a Joycean finance ministry might bring. Joyce took a very active role in his administration at MBIE. Read more
New Zealand has had a pretty decent eight years under John Key. The rest of the world’s descent into madness accelerated sharply, and New Zealand’s has looked better by comparison. Read more
Like everyone else in Wellington, our family woke early that Monday morning to earthquakes. We had been through it before, in Christchurch, and I did not like it. Read more
Some opportunities you know you’d really regret passing over. And so I found myself on Saturday in a hot tub full of milk with Canterbury law lecturer David Round, Christchurch activist artist Sam Mahon, and chef-in-training Camila Nieuwlands. Read more
The government ran roughshod over property rights in the Christchurch rebuild. The New Zealand Human Rights Commission’s report urging the government to include property rights in the Bill of Rights now seems especially timely. Read more
As Game of Thrones fans will remember, while it’s tempting to see chaos as a pit, chaos can also be a ladder. As the latest season of America’s Game of Thrones reached a climax more shocking than the Red Wedding, New Zealand should look to potential opportunities. Read more