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Eric Crampton

@ericcrampton.bsky.social
641 followers 305 following 592 posts

Chief Economist at the NZ Initiative. Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Department of Economics at @ucnz Squatting here and at @EricCrampton@mastodon.social in case Twitter ever finally sinks.

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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The Commerce Act doesn't include break-up as penalty for anything relevant to retail grocery. I tried to imagine the path that could lead to that kind of power in more standard approaches to competition policy. It's at best a stretch. I hate election years. www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3610...
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Michael Wiebe @michaelwiebe.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Vancouver has a housing shortage because it prioritized maintaining its single-family neighborhood character. blog.michaelwiebe.com/p/how-vancou...
blog.michaelwiebe.com
How Vancouver planned a housing shortage
The city put neighbourhood character first and housing supply second
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Folks on all sides are being more meltybrained than usual around Hipkins' policy change on interest rate deductions for residential property businesses.
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Newsroom NZ @newsroom.co.nz · 18/09/2026
Week in Review: Comment: A permanent resident’s reluctance to become a citizen does not necessarily mean a reluctance to become a “real” NZer, says Eric Crampton
newsroom.co.nz
Citizenship can cost more than a passport
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Newsroom NZ @newsroom.co.nz · 14/09/2026
Comment: A permanent resident’s reluctance to become a citizen does not necessarily mean a reluctance to become a “real” NZer, says Eric Crampton
newsroom.co.nz
Citizenship can cost more than a passport
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I don't know whether NZ First is ramping up its supporters with a policy promise that cannot reasonably be delivered as advertised, or whether they'd push ahead to legislate regardless of consequence. I hate election years. www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3610...
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 12/09/2026
The US President's new proposal to tax international students has been approved by the White House for release this week. It's an unprecedented $100,000 tax on int'l grads who stay to work after graduation on Optional Practical Training (most grads do), a crucial bridge to remaining by any channel.
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Liberalism.org @liberalism.org · 11/09/2026
Vincent Geloso uses America's lighthouses as a case study in how nationalizing industries acts as a redistributive engine for rent-seeking interests. www.liberalism.org/p/why-states...
liberalism.org
Why States Nationalize
Economists have many answers, but the truth may be larger than they know.
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Russell Brown @publicaddress.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
We now have a group of people with deranged, obsessive beliefs and a willingness for violence. Egged on by John Ansell, who is now encouraging "more and more people around the country" to do "exactly the same thing". www.thepost.co.nz/politics/361...
thepost.co.nz
Attendees form human barrier as agitators confront Ayesha Verrall during candidates meeting
Police had been alerted to potential security concerns before the meeting.
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I had this over on Twitter a couple of days ago as a Twitter article. It's a bit long. So I'll have to split it across a few posts. Bottom line: taken literally, NZ First would break a pile of international agreements by doing this, and it's a terrible idea.
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Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Two weeks ago, Trump threatened to use the military against the bond market “if we have to.” www.yahoo.com/news/politic...
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Newsroom NZ @newsroom.co.nz · 03/09/2026
Comment: Restricting carbon forestry in the ETS is a mistake; fixing accounting flaws and capping credit issuance is the cheapest path to net zero, argues Dr Eric Crampton
newsroom.co.nz
Fix ETS instead of banning carbon forestry
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 02/09/2026
This is exactly why privacy advocates have pushed back against age verification measures. These companies are reckless with their data and it can easily be compromised. It can leave people vulnerable to identity theft, doxing, and targeted harassment.
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James Tinged Words @jameswords.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
You know, if you don’t collect it, it can’t be lost in breaches like this.
static.klipy.com
G.I. Joe: Knowing Is Half The Battle
Alt: G.I. Joe: Knowing Is Half The Battle
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This is insane. And I have to imagine it’s wildly illegal.
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Edouard Machery @edouardmachery.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
A self Inflicted wound. One of the greatest products ever made, which was desired by the whole world for 60 years.
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I don't like what Trump's done here either, but if historic preservationists don't have sufficient standing to challenge the demolition of part of the White House, does this clear the way for enabling redevelopment more broadly? "Unless you live in the affected property, you don't have standing."?
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Bryn Davidson - Lanefab @lanefab.com · 31/08/2026
cheers to "urban nerds" and zoning reform in New Zealand
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Parliament last week re-upped part of the cross-party consensus favouring more housing. National put up amendments to the Planning Bill strengthening competitive urban land markets; Labour asked them to take it even further. Excellent. My piece in today's Post:
thepost.co.nz
A bright spot in Parliament’s quest to drive housing affordability
OPINION: The efforts of a pair of politics’ “urban nerds” represent Parliament at its best.
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
It's fun to imagine Meta's first report to NZ's promised online regulator about what they've done to avoid harms from "false or misleading information" under the government's proposed social media bill. Or at least I have fun imagining it. www.nzinitiative.org.nz/reports-and-...
nzinitiative.org.nz
Protecting the children
This week, the government introduced legislation intended to protect youths from online harms.<br /> <br /> If the Bill passes, covered social media platforms will be required to take ‘reasonable step...
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Newsroom NZ @newsroom.co.nz · 18/08/2026
Comment: Bespoke labelling rules force importers to manually sticker items, driving up grocery prices and creating barriers for new supermarket entrants, writes Dr Eric Crampton
newsroom.co.nz
The sticker sticklers that can drive me to drink
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Treasury's economic policy performance earned a 'weak' PIR rating. Treasury does not know what proportion of its staff are trained economists. But Treasury does know the gender and ethnicity of 97.5% of its staff. Publishes regular reports on that. Priorities.... www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3610...
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Will Wilkinson @wlknsn.xyz · 31/07/2026
I’ve been thinking a lot about the thoughtlessness of AI writing. One of the many things that makes Melville’s prose so dazzling is the EXTEME rigor of the way he surprises, deepens and extends his metaphors and cultural touchstones. AI simply can’t, and not for the same reason that most of us can’t
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Ben McNulty @ponekeben.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Epiiiiiic.
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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
#USDA reports that Utah has another #H5N1 #birdflu infected dairy cow herd, its 14th since the beginning of June & 28th overall. That makes 1,167 confirmed infections in herds in 19 states since this outbreak was first detected in March 2024. www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-po...
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Fable has made possible something I wish we could have done during the Commerce Commission groceries inquiry. We have mapped out, for NZ's main cities, where it is permitted, hard, or impossible to build new supermarkets. Zoning is a substantial problem. supermarketzoning.nzinitiative.org.nz
supermarketzoning.nzinitiative.org.nz
Legalising Groceries — an atlas of where New Zealand allows a supermarket
Where New Zealand's district plans allow a new full-line supermarket, and where they forbid one. Nine district plans, six metros, mapped — with the rules that ration competition at the checkout.
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Perhaps a deal in which Canada occasionally compensates the US for smoke, and the rest of the time the US compensates Canada for carbon sequestration and biodiversity services?
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
I had heard Seymour not as endorsing this policy, but saying it sucks less than trying to age-gate websites and apps. I agree that it would suck less than age-gating and breaking the internet. But it still would very much suck.
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
I had a hard time understanding how anyone could spend $6m in 2026/27, rising to $8.5m for 2028/29 and 29/30, just "to develop policy and possible regulatory options to improve children's online safety." I think the spending's going to be on implementation. Minor thread.
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Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
A group of contracts professors wrote some short-answer contracts questions, wrote answers, and then did a blind-test comparison between AI-written answers and the answers of the other professors. The AI-written answers were generally rated as better. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
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Tami Swenson @tamiswenson.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
each semester when we cover the latest Scotland cohort study in epi, students main comment is “how is this not better known”
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 01/06/2026
Update four months later! I speculated above that the chosen weighting scheme might have generated the result. Now @kauspurg.bsky.social & Josef Brüderl find that it does—> osf.io/preprints/me...
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Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Expanded new piece from me at @theunpopulist.net: step by step through the corrupt and brazen heist that is Trump’s cash-for-Capitol-attackers fund, and the awful incentives it sets up. “If they try that again, they may come out not just with a get-out-of-jail pardon, but with a fortune.”
theunpopulist.net
Trump's Slush Fund to Reward Jan. 6 Insurrectionists Is Grotesquely Corrupt
It also quietly excuses Trump and his family from accountability for underpaying past IRS tax bills
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Omar Wasow @owasow.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Easter egg: in 1984, Michael Crichton’s short story Mousetrap imagined that behavioral traces in typing could be as distinctive as fingerprints. 40 years later, we’re getting there. See omarwasow.com/Crichton-Mou... cup.org/4cUmoXi
omarwasow.com
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Neat stuff. May stop working as the cost of producing text goes down. But neat.
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
One thing I love about writing for the Post: they don't strip out links or swap out links for semi-relevant stories from their own website. My piece in today's post: NZ's migration story isn't Europe's. Stop importing narratives that don't apply here. www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3610...
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Sam @mardiroos.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
You are a skilful and trusted vizier. You will advise me wisely on how best to rule the kingdom. You will not scheme or plot. You will not inveigle my other courtiers into turning against me. You will not lie to me about scheming or plotting. If you scheme or plot against me, you have to tell me,
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
I thought a bit of perspective on datacentre water use could be worth the risk. Maximum draw for the new Southland datacentre is comparable to: - 80 hectares of vineyard - 60% of a meat works - a quarter of an average Canterbury irrigation consent - two waterparks - half an apple orchard.
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
A third-trimester vaccination sharply reduces infant RSV hospitalisation. Kiwi women were part of the vax trials. It is authorised for use in about 40 countries, with a pile of approvals in 2023-24. But nobody has applied for Medsafe authorisation. So Kiwi women can't get it to protect their kids
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
"A vaccine during pregnancy which protects newborns against nasty chest infections is cutting hospital admissions of babies by more than 80%, UK health officials say." www.bbc.com/news/article... It's great news, for those in ~40 countries that aren't NZ. In NZ, it is not Medsafe-authorised.
bbc.com
Pregnancy vaccine reduces baby hospital admissions for RSV by 80%
A study confirms the vaccine gives excellent protection for babies against life-threatening chest infections.
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darianwoods.bsky.social @darianwoods.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
In New Zealand, diesel is now over US$7 a gallon. Yet the government is resisting calls to cut fuel taxes. I brought @ericcrampton.bsky.social onto The Indicator from @planetmoney.bsky.social to explain why.
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
The National Policy Statement on Urban Development gave public transport providers a superpower. Set a mass transit node, and the 200 hectares around it gets upzoned, plausibly creating billions of dollars of development opportunities. Superpowers should be used. www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3609...
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Amazing. And Saskatchewan's law remained in place until 1969.
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
The RBNZ is consulting about a proposal that it would not have statutory authority to undertake. I wish I better understood what the RBNZ thinks it is doing. It feels like ongoing governance failures. offsettingbehaviour.blogspot.com/2026/04/acce...
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J.C. Bradbury @jcbradbury.com · 04/02/2026
My article (with @bradhumphreys.bsky.social ) "Yes, There is an Economic Consensus That Professional Sports Facilities are Inadvisable Public Investments" is now published in Economic Development Quarterly. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Ubiquitous driverless cars risk turning streets into parking lots, unless use of the roads is properly priced. This week's column riffs on Ben Southwood's piece at Works in Progress, noting that NZ's more ready than others for proper road pricing.
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
So long as prices can rise to clear markets, risk of running out is low. No formal rationing required.
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Eric Crampton @ericcrampton.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Extensive @dileepafonseka.bsky.social interview with Alain Bertaud at BusinessDesk. Auckland's improved since Bertaud's last visit. I hope it will be even better on his next visit. businessdesk.co.nz/article/infr...
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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 25/03/2026
The best and brightest young people from around the world are getting the message: Reconsider investing your talents in the United States. Cumulative issuance of F-1 student visas by calendar month, down circa 32% as of September (latest available) Source: travel.state.gov/content/trav...
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David Hood @thoughtfulnz.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
I think it is important to give credit to RNZ for "looking out the window to see if it is raining" in this article. Because we should note when media are being responsible in reporting claims, not just getting angry on cases of bad reporting www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
Jones has falsely claimed the Labour government closed the refinery down, repeating that claim again on Morning Report. Refining NZ (now Channel Infrastructure), a private company, made the call to end refining at the Marsden Point site and transition to being an import-only hub. The government considered stepping in, but decided against it, with advice to ministers being that risks to fuel security were "very low", because any event that cut off the supply of refined oil would likely cut off crude as well.
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