Eric is the Chief Economist at The New Zealand Initiative. With the Initiative, he has worked in policy areas ranging from freshwater management to policy for earthquake preparedness, and from local government to technology policy. He has recently focused on policy related to Covid-19 response. He served as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Department of Economics & Finance at the University of Canterbury from 2003 through 2014.
Eric’s columns and commentary appear regularly in New Zealand’s major media outlets, as well as on his blog, Offsetting Behaviour. He can also be found on Twitter at @ericcrampton .
Submission: Transforming Recycling - Container Return Scheme (2022)
Submission: Wellington Council on the Draft Economic Wellbeing Strategy (2022)
Submission: Managing exotic afforestation incentives (2022)
Submission: The market study into residential building supplies preliminary issues paper (2022)
Submission: Issues raised at the consultation conference on the Commission's market study into the retail grocery sector draft report (2021)
Submission: Resource management enabling housing supply and other matters Amendment Bill (2021)
Submission: Covid-19 public health response Amendment Bill (no 2) (2021)
Research Note: Safer arrivals and the path to 2022 (2021)
Submission: The market study into the retail grocery sector draft report (2021)
Fording the rapids: Charting a course to fresher water (2021)
Submission: Proposals for a smokefree Aotearoa 2025 action plan (2021)
Submission: Inquiry into congestion pricing in Auckland (2021)
Policy Point: A risky place to do business (2021)
Roadmap for Recovery: Briefing to the Incoming Government (2020)
Submission: Smokefree environments and regulated products Act 1990: Proposals for regulations (2021)
Democracy in the Dark (2020)
Research Note: Safe Arrivals (2020)
Policy Point: Open for minds: export education and recovery (2020)
Submission: Smokefree environments and regulated products (vaping) Amendment Bill (2020)
Policy Point: Stay on Target (2020)
Research Note: Effective Treatment: Public policy prescription for a pandemic (2020)
Policy Point: Time to process (2020)
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Phone: +64 4 499 0790
Carbon prices are the best way of getting us to Net Zero. The Emissions Trading Scheme can get the job done if the government lets it. Read more
How has Putin’s regime changed over the years? And does the structure of his government explain Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its poor military performance? Read more
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine combined with a global pandemic and a Reserve Bank that has forgotten its core inflation mandate do not make a case for cutting petrol excise and road user charges. And yet, here we are. Read more
Eric Crampton talks to Kate Hawkesby on NewstalkZB Early Edition about whether the Government's fuel discount will help those dealing with increases to the cost of living. Read more
The Government has reduced fuel excise duty and public transport costs to help curb rising living costs. Eric Crampton talks to Wallace Chapman on Radio NZ - The Panel about how effective this will be. Read more
Wellington (Tuesday, 8 March 2022) The New Zealand Initiative is applauding the Commerce Commission for their final report into supermarket competition, and says the regulator is right to take issue with the red tape that hinders competitors entering the market. The Commission recommended easing zoning restrictions so that it is legal to build supermarkets in more places, removing restrictive covenants that hinder supermarket development in prime sites, and ensuring that the Overseas Investment Act and the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act do not unduly impede entry and expansion. Read more
The Commerce Commission’s final report into retail grocery competition, released this morning, recommends legalising new grocery stores. While it is not formally illegal to start a new supermarket chain, zoning and regulatory barriers make it effectively impossible. Read more
Top economists agree on climate response Wellington (Tuesday, 8 March 2022) The second New Zealand Economics Experts Survey finds consensus among the country’s top economists on climate policy. The New Zealand Association of Economists, in conjunction with The New Zealand Initiative, invited Distinguished Fellows, life members, and former Presidents of the New Zealand Association of Economists, and recipients of the NZIER ‘Economist of the Year’ award, to serve as an expert panel. Read more
National wants to reverse the current Government's tax increases and adjust income tax brackets. Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking, talks to Robyn Walker, Deloitte Tax Partner, and Eric Crampton about National's tax plans and whther they make sense. Read more
The latest survey of New Zealand economists provides a clear steer for climate policy. Rather than use policies like fuel economy standards for imported vehicles, which target emissions already covered by the Emissions Trading Scheme’s cap on net emissions, the government should simply tighten the cap more quickly. Read more
The National Party has promised to cut taxes and raise income tax brackets. Who will win and who will lose when taxes are cut? Read more
The government’s Covid testing system has fallen apart and we are now largely flying blind, as Siouxsie Wiles put it. But it is worse than that. Read more
The coming weeks of Covid are going to be very grim. Kiwis became far too accustomed to waiting for Government guidance rather than weighing risks ourselves. Read more
There is never a shortage of economic opinions among commentators – but what is the expert consensus among economists? Eric Crampton talks to Ben Craven about the new Economic Experts Survey, what the discipline agrees on, and the danger of faddish economic beliefs in the public sector. Read more
You’ve heard all the jokes before: If you laid all the economists in the world end to end, they still wouldn’t reach a conclusion; put 10 economists in a room and you’ll get 11 opinions; economics is the only field where two people can share a Nobel Prize for saying opposite things. While the first two are purely speculative, that last one actually happened, in 1974. Read more